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Vol.    XX 


EDUCATIONAL    CREEDS 


OF  THE 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


EDITED    BY 

OSSIAN    H.    LANG 

AUTHOR    OF    "outlines   OF    HERBART'S    PEDAGOGICS,' 
"COMENIUS,"    "BASEDOW,"   ETC. 


/447Z 


NEW  YORK   AND  CHICAGO 

E.    L.   KELLOGG    &    CO, 


Copyright,  1898,  by 

E.  L.  KELLOGG  &  CO., 

NEW   YORK. 


LA 

Lzs 


INTEODUCTION. 


There  is  something  radically  and  fatally  wrong  with 
a  teacher  who  has  no  educational  creed.  Education  is  a 
responsible  and  complicated  work,  which  must  be  cure- 
fully  planned  from  beginning  to  end.  Tliere  must  be  a 
definite  aim  and  a  clear  understanding  of  the  ways  and 
means  of  reaching  it.  In  other  words,  the  educator 
must  have  in  his  mind  some  fixed  principles  of  action. 
"Without  them  he  is  like  the  captain  of  a  ship  without  a 
compass.  Every  fad  that  stirs  up  a  breeze  may  turn  him 
from  his  course.  If  he  is  a  routinist  his  pupils  will  be 
deprived  of  opportunities  for  educational  development. 
In  short,  only  a  teacher  who  has  clear  and  rational  edu- 
cational convictions  can  be  safely  entrusted  with  the 
training  of  children. 

But  the  collecting  and  organizing  of  a  body  of  sound 

v^  educational  doctrine  is  no  easy  task.     The  professional 

^  aspect  of  teaching  is  as  yet  but  imperfectly  developed, 

^  and  there  is  little  agreement  as  to  what  constitutes  an 

'  authoritative  statement  in  matters  pedagogical.     Often 

people  assume  the  direction  of  educational  affairs  with 

no  other  qualification  than  success  in  a  political  contest. 

Again,  in  teachers'  meetings  a  bright  speaker  with  just  a 

superficial,  if  any,  knowledge  of  pedagogy  frequently 

impresses  his  audience  more  than  a  thoroughly  grounded 

iii 


iv  Introduction. 

educator  who  lacks  ability  in  public  address.  Further- 
more, there  is  an  abundance  of  books  and  periodicals,  all 
professing  to  be  pedagogical  in  character,  which  present 
almost  as  many  different  and  conflicting  opinions  con- 
cerning fundamentals  as  there  are  writers.  Ko  wonder 
tlie  belief  prevails  that  the  theory  of  education  is  merely 
a  matter  of  opinion,  an  arbitrary  thing,  concerning 
which  one  person's  judgment  is  as  good  as  that  of 
another. 

Experience  and  extensive  inquiry  among  students  of 
education  show  that  the  most  satisfactory  source  of  ped- 
agogical insight  and  inspiration  is  to  be  found  in  the 
history  of  educational  theories,  or,  more  precisely  speak 
ing,  in  the  study  of  the  pedagogic  creeds  of  the  masters. 
Here,  then,  is  a  wide  and  fruitful  field  for  investigation 
for  all  who  desire  to  get  hold  of  the  great  truths  upon 
which  education  rests. 

But  however  necessary  the  historical  study  of  educa- 
tion may  be,  it  is  not  all-sufficient.  The  world  moves. 
The  advance  of  civilization  daily  brings  up  new  prob- 
lems. The  ideals  of  humanity  are  constantly  broaden- 
ing. The  present,  it  is  true,  is  the  result  of  the  past 
and  cannot  be  rightly  understood  without  a  knowledge 
of  its  evolution.  IJut  it  is  also  and  decidedly  a  subject 
for  special  consideration,  involving  close  scrutiny  of  the 
demands  of  present-day  sociology  and  ethics.  In  for- 
nuilating'one's  pedagogical  creed,  therefore,  one  ought  to 
take  careful  account  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by 
those  who  have  given  years  of  tlionght  to  the  digging  for 
educational  trutlis  and  are  best  qualified  to  interpret 
the  educational  needs  of  the  ])rescnt. 

Nowhere  has  pedagogical  iiu|niry  received  more  atten- 
tion than  in  Germany.  Its  contributions  to  the  litera- 
ture of  pedagogy  are  therefore  well  worthy  of  the 
American  teachers.     Educational  foundation  truths  are 


Introduction.  v 

universal,  and  the  best  thought  of  Germany  concerning 
them  cannot  but  prove  helpful  to  the  seeker  for  light. 
But  a  creed  involves  more  than  universal  principles.  It 
is  of  little  value  if  it  does  not  strike  at  existing  condi- 
tions. American  education  involves  peculiar  problems 
and  possibilities.  AVe  need  more  than  adaptation  of 
European-bred  pedagogical  ideas  and  plans.  Popular 
government  on  as  grand  a  scale  as  ours  is  to  be  found 
nowhere  else,  and  the  education  of  the  people  in  com- 
mon schools  free  to  all  is  a  reality  only  with  us — even  in 
free  England  it  is  still  but  an  ideal.  It  is  evident  that 
we  need  a  thoroughly  American  scheme  of  education, 
one  that  is  specially  and  fully  suited  to  the  demands  of 
our  own  civilizaiton. 

These  and  other  considerations  induced  the  editor,  in 
the  spring  of  1896,  to  send  out  letters  to  a  number  of 
well-known  students  of  the  philosophy  of  education,  ask- 
ing them  to  furnish  for  publication  brief  but  compre- 
hensive statements  of  the  educational  ideals  and  plans 
upon  whose  application  they  based  their  hopes  for  the 
future  of  American  civilization.  The  replies  were 
printed  in  The  School  Journal  under  the  general  head 
of  "Pedagogical  Creeds,"'  and  after  a  careful  revision 
are  now  collected  and  offered  in  book  form. 

This  century  may  well  be  called  the  Pestalozzian  era 
in  education.  There  is  not  one  American  educator  rep- 
resented in  this  book  who  is  not  indebted  either  directly 
or  indirectly  to  Father  Pcstalozzi.  The  indirect  influ- 
ences may  have  come  either  from  Froebel  and  Diester- 
weg,  who  elaborated  the  plans  of  Pestalozzi  in  a  practi- 
cal way,  or  from  llerbart  and  Reneke,  who  attempted  to 
systematize  the  new  educational  gospel  and  make  it  the 
basis  of  a  science  of  pedagogics.  But  they  are  to  be 
discerned  more  or  less  clearly  in  every  creed.  It  was 
thought,  therefore,  tbat  the  readers  of  this  book  would 


vi  Introduction. 

appreciate  summaries  of  the  educational  principles  of 
the  great  German  Pestalozzians.  These  latter  creeds 
have  been  collected  from  various  sources  and  an  effort  has 
been  made  to  keep  them  as  concise  as  possible,  assuming 
that  readers  will  look  for  aids  to  special  and  more  ex- 
tensive study  elsewhere. 

All  these  creeds  reflect  various  conceptions  of  the 
fundamental  truths  of  education.  A  comparative  study 
of  them  will,  it  is  hoped,  serve  to  arouse  greater  interest 
in  the  study  of  theoretical  pedagogics,  to  stimulate  pro- 
fessional pride,  and  to  invigorate  in  the  hearts  of  thou- 
sands of  American  educators  the  sense  of  responsibility 
demanded  for  the  task  of  training  the  future  citizens  of 
this  country. 

OssiAN  H.  Lang. 

New  York,  1898. 


CONTENTS. 


^  PAGE 

Introduction . . .  \>. iii 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  Professor  John  Dewey;/ 5 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  John  S.  Clark 21 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  William  T.  Harris 36 

The  Shorter  Pedagogical  Creed  of  B.  A.  Hinsdale 47 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  Earl  Barnes 52 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  Colonel  Francis  W.  Parker 54 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  James  L.  Hughes 57 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  W.  N.  Hailmann 67 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  L.  Seeley,  Ph.D 73 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  Richard  Q.  Boone 78 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  E.  W.  Scripture 82 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  Louis  H.  Jones 90 

The  Pedagogical  Creed  of  R.  Heber  Holbrook,  Ph.D 95 

The  Educational  Creed  of  Patterson  DuBois 100 

A  Bit  of  a  Creed.    By  Jaraes  P.  Haney,  M.D 107 

Th«  Educational  Creed  of  T.  G.  Rooper 112 

Some  Elements  of  a  Common  Educational  Creed.     By  George 

P.  Brown 1^6 

Pedagogic  Achievements  of  Pestalozzi  133 

1  Froeliel's  Pedagogical  Creed 136 

TTiesterweg's  Pedagogical  Creed 141 

Rules  of  Instruction  144 

Herbart's  Pedagogical  Creed 148  > 

T\vo  Analyses  of  Herbart's  Didactics 152  , 

Beneke's  Pedagogical  Creed 1  .j.") 

Herbart  and  Beneke ;    A  Comparison   of  their  Creeds   witli 

Reference  to  the  Theory  of  Instruction.    157 

vU 


I.  THE   PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 


hamanity. 


of  Professor  John  Dewey, 

University  of  Chica(;o. 

AETICLE   I.      WHAT  EDUCATION   IS. 
/4472. 
I  BELIEVE  that  all  education  proceeds  by  the  participa- 
tion of  the  individual  in  the  social  consciousness  of  the 

race.      This   process    begins    unconsciously 

Resources 
almost  at  birth,  and  is  continually  shaping         of 

the  individual's  powers,  saturating  his  con- 
sciousness, forming  his  habits,  training  his  ideas,  and 
arousing  his  feelings  and 
emotions.  Through  this 
unconscious  education 
the  individual  gradually 
comes  to  share  in  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  re- 
sources which  humanity 
has  succeeded  in  getting 
together.  He  becomes 
an  inheritor  of  the  fund- 
ed capital  of  civilization. 
The  most  formal  and 
technical  education  in 
the  world  cannot  safely 
depart  from  this  general 
process.  It  can  only  or- 
ganize it ;  or  differen- 
tiate it  in  some  particular  direction. 

5 


6  Educational  Creeds. 

I  believe  that  the  only  true  education  comes  through 

the  stimulation  of  the  child's  powers  by  the  demands  of 

Social      ^^^®  social  situations  in  which  he  finds  him- 

demands.  gg|f^  Through  these  demands  he  is  stimu- 
lated to  act  as  a  member  of  a  unity,  to  emerge  from  his 
original  narrowness  of  action  and  feeling,  and  to  con- 
ceive of  himself  from  the  standpoint  of  the  welfare  of 
the  group  to  which  he  belongs.  Through  the  responses 
which  others  make  to  his  own  activities  he  comes  to 
know  what  these  mean  in  social  terms.  The  value  which 
they  have  is  reflected  back  into  them.  For  instance, 
through  the  response  which  is  made  to  the  child's  in- 
stinctive babblings  the  child  comes  to  know  what  those 
babblings  mean  ;  they  are  transformed  into  articulate 
language,  and  thus  the  child  is  introduced  into  the  con- 
solidated wealth  of  ideas  and  emotions  which  are  now 
summed  up  in  language. 

I  believe  that  this  educational  process  has  two  sides 
— one  psychological  and  one  sociological  ;  and  that 
Psychological  neither  can  be  subordinated  to  the  other  or 
basis,  neglected  without  evil  results  following.  Of 
these  two  sides,  the  psychological  is  the  basis.  The 
child's  own  instincts  and  powers  furnish  the  material 
and  give  the  starting-point  for  all  education.  Save  as 
the  eJBforts  of  the  educator  connect  with  some  activity 
which  the  child  is  carrying  on  of  his  own  initiative  in- 
dependent of  the  educator,  education  becomes  reduced 
to  a  pressure  from  without.  It  may,  indeed,  give  cer- 
tain external  results,  but  cannot  truly  be  called  educative. 
Without  insight  into  the  psychological  structure  and 
activities  of  the  individual,  the  educative  process  will, 
therefore,  be  haphazard  and  arbitrary.  If  it  chances  to 
coincide  with  the  child's  activity  it  will  get  a  leverage  ; 
if  it  does  not,  it  will  result  in  friction,  or  disintegration, 
or  arrest  of  the  child  nature. 


John  Dewey.  7 

I  believe  that  knowledge  of  social  conditious,  of  the 
present  state  of  civilization,  is  necessary  in  order  prop- 
erly to  interpret  the  child's  powers.  The  xhe  social 
child  has  his  own  instincts  and  tendencies,  "^**- 
but  we  do  not  know  what  these  mean  nntil  we  can  tran- 
slate them  into  their  social  equivalents.  We  must  be 
able  to  carry  them  back  into  a  social  past  and  see  them 
as  the  inlieritance  of  previous  race  activities.  We  must 
also  be  able  to  project  them  into  the  future  to  see  what 
their  outcome  and  end  will  be.  In  the  illustration  just 
used,  it  is  the  ability  to  see  in  the  child's  babblings  the 
promise  and  potency  of  a  future  social  intercourse  and 
conversation  which  enables  one  to  deal  in  the  proper 
way  with  that  instinct. 

I  believe  that  the  psychological  and  social  sides  are 
organically  related,  and  that  education  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  a  compromise  between  the  two,  or 

...  .  .,  ,,         Psychological 

a  superimposition   of  one  upon  the  other,    social  sides 

related. 
We  are  told  that  the  psychological  definition 

of  education  is  barren  and  formal — that  it  gives  us  only 
the  idea  of  a  development  of  all  the  mental  powers  with- 
out giving  us  any  idea  of  the  use  to  which  these  powers 
are  put.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  urged  that  the  social 
definition  of  education,  as  getting  adjusted  to  civiliza- 
tion, makes  of  it  a  forced  and  external  process,  and  re- 
sults in  subordinating  the  freedom  of  the  individual  to 
a  preconceived  social  and  political  status. 

I  believe  each  of  these  objections  is  true  when  urged 
against  one  side  isolated  from  the  other.     In  order  to 
know  what  a  power  really  is  we  must  know 
what  its  end,  use,  or  function  is  ;  and  this  we         01 
cannot  know  save  as  we  conceive  of  the  indi- 
vidual as  active  in   social  relationships.     But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  only  possible  adjustment  which  we  can 
give   to  the  child  under  existing  conditions,   is    that 


8  Educational  Creeds. 

which  arises  through  putting  him  in  complete  possession 
of  all  his  powers.  AVith  the  advent  of  democracy  and 
modern  industrial  conditions,  it  is  impossible  to  foretell 
definitely  just  what  civilization  will  be  twenty  years 
from  now.  Hence  it  is  impossible  to  prepare  the  child 
for  any  precise  set  of  conditions.  To  prepare  him  for 
the  future  life  means  to  give  him  command  of  himself; 
it  means  so  to  train  him  that  he  will  have  the  full  and 
ready  use  of  all  his  capacities  ;  that  his  eye  and  ear  and 
hand  may  be  tools  ready  to  command,  that  his  judg- 
ment may  be  capable  of  grasping  the  conditions  under 
which  it  has  to  work,  and  the  executive  forces  be  trained 
to  act  economically  and  efficiently.  It  is  impossible  to 
reach  this  sort  of  adjustment  save  as  constant  regard  is 
had  to  the  individual's  own  powers,  tastes,  and  interests 
C  — say,  that  is,  as  education  is  continually  converted  into 
N.  psychological  terms. 

In  sum,  I  believe  that  the  individual  who  is  to  be 
educated  is  a  social  individual,  and  that  society  is  an 
Purpose  of  organic  union  of  individuals.  If  we  elimi- 
edncation.  j^j^j.^  ^jjg  social  factor  from  the  child  we  are 
left  only  with  an  abstraction  ;  if  we  eliminate  the  indi- 
vidual factor  from  society,  we  are  left  only  with  an  inert 
and  lifeless  mass.  Education,  therefore,  must  begin 
with  a  psychological  insight  into  the  child's  capacities, 
interests,  and  habits.  It  must  be  controlled  at  every 
point  by  reference  to  these  same  considerations.  These 
powers,  interests,  and  habits  must  be  continually  inter- 
preted— we  must  know  what  they  mean.  They  must  be 
translated  into  terms  of  their  social  equivalents— into 
terms  of  what  they  are  capable  of  in  the  way  of  social 
service. 


John  Dewey. 


ARTICLE    II.      WHAT   THE    SCHOOL   IS. 

I  believe  that  the  school  is  primaril}-  a  social  institu- 
tion. Education  being  a  social  process,  the  school  is 
simply  that  form  of  community  life  in  which  community 
all  those  agencies  are  concentrated  that  will  ^^* 
be  most  effective  in  bringing  the  child  to  share  in  the  in- 
herited resources  of  the  race,  and  to  use  his  own  powers 
for  social  ends. 

I  believe  that  education,  therefore,  is  a  process  of  liv- 
ing and  not  a  preparation  for  future  living. 

I  believe  that  the  school  must  represent  present  life 
—  life  as  real  and  vital  to  the  child  as  that       yitai 
which   he   carries  on   in  the  home,  in  the      forms, 
neighborhood,  or  on  the  playground. 

I  believe  that  education  which  does  not  occur  through 
forms  of  life,  forms  that  are  worth  living  for  their  own 
sake,  is  always  a  poor  substitute  for  the  genuine  reality, 
and  tends  to  cramp  and  to  deaden. 

I  believe  that  the  school,  as  an  institution,  should 
simplify  existing  social  life  ;   should  reduce   it,  as  it 
were,  to  an  embryonic  form.     Existing  life  is 
so  complex  that  the  child  cannot  be  brought     soSety. 
into  contact  with  it  without  either  confusion 
or  distraction;  he  is  either  overwhelmed  by  the  multi- 
plicity of  activities  which  are  going  on,  so  that  he  loses 
his  own  power  of  orderly  reaction,  or  he  is  so  stimulated 
by  these  various  activities  that  his  powers  are  prema- 
turely called  into  play  and  he  becomes  either  unduly 
specialized  or  else  disintegrated. 

I   believe   that,   as    such   simplified   social  life,    the 

school  life  should  grow  gradually  out  of  the 

, .  -  .1111  1  The  meanincf 

home  life;  that  it  should  take  up  and  con-     of  social 

.        .      Activities, 
tinue  the  artivities  with  which  the  child  is 


already  familiar  in  the  home. 


lo  Educational  Creeds. 

I  believe  that  it  should  exhibit  these  activities  to  the 
child,  and  reproduce  them  in  such  ways  that  the  child 
will  gradually  learn  the  meaning  of  them,  and  be  ca- 
pable of  playing  his  own  part  in  relation  to  them. 

I  believe  that  this  is  a  psychological  necessity,  because 

continnity  ^'^  ^^  ^^^^  ^"^J  ^^J  '^^  securing  continuity  in 
of  growth,  ^jjg  child's  growth,  the  only  way  of  giving  a 
background  of  past  experience  to  the  new  ideas  given 
in  school. 

I  believe  it  is  also  a  social  necessity,  because  the  home 
is  the  form  of  social  life  in  which  the  child  has  been  nur- 
tured and  in  connection  with  which  he  has  had  his 
moral  training.  It  is  the  business  of  the  school  to 
deepen  and  extend  his  sense  of  the  values  bound  up  in 
his  home  life. 

I  believe  that  much  of  present  education  fails  because 
it  neglects  this  fundamental  i)rinciple  of  the  school  as 

Wrong  ^  form  of  community  life.  It  conceives  the 
alms.  school  as  a  place  where  certain  information 
is  to  be  given,  where  certain  lessons  are  to  be  learned, 
or  where  certain  habits  are  to  be  formed.  The  value  of 
these  is  conceived  as  lying  largely  in  the  remote  future; 
the  child  must  do  these  things  for  the  sake  of  some- 
thing else  he  is  to  do;  they  are  mere  preparations.  As 
a  result  they  do  not  become  a  part  of  the  life  experience 
of  the  child  and  so  are  not  truly  educative. 

I  believe  that  the  moral  education  centers  upon  this 

conception  of  the  school  as  a  mode  of  social  life,  that 

Moral       ^^^  ^®®^  ^^^  deepest  moral  training  is  pre- 

training.  cjgely  that  which  one  gets  through  having  to 
enter  into  proper  relations  with  others  in  a  unity  of 
work  and  thought.  The  present  educational  systems, 
80  far  as  they  destroy  or  neglect  this  unity,  render  it 
difficult  or  impossible  to  get  any  genuine,  regular  moral 
training. 


John  Dewey.  ii 

I  believe  that  the  child  should  be  stimulated  and 
controlled  in  his  work  through  the  life  of    stimulus 
the  community.  and  control. 

I  believe  that  under  existing  conditions  far  too  much 
of  the  stimulus  and  control  proceeds  from  the  teacher, 
because  of  neglect  of  the  idea  of  the  school  as  a  form  of 
social  life. 

I  believe  that  the  teacher's  place  and  work  in  the 
school  is  to  be  interpreted  from  this  same  basis.  The 
teacher  is  not  in  the  school  to  impose  certain  ideas  or 
to  form  certain  habits  in  the  child,  but  is  there  as  a 
member  of  the  community  to  select  the  influences 
which  shall  affect  the  child  and  to  assist  him  in  properly 
responding  to  these  influences. 

I  believe  that  the  discipline  of  the  school  should  pro- 
ceed from  the  life  of  the  school  as  a  whole 
and  not  directly  from  the  teacher. 

I  believe  that  the  teacher's  business  is  simply  to  de- 
termine, on  the  basis  of  larger  experience  and  riper 
wisdom,  how  the  discipline  of  life  shall  come  to  the 
child. 

I  believe  that  all  questions  of  the  grading  of  the  child 
and  his  promotion  should  be  determined  by  reference 
to  the  same  standard.  Examinations  are  of 
use  only  so  far  as  they  test  the  child's  fitness 
for  social  life  and  reveal  the  place  in  which  he  can  be 
of  the  moat  service  and  where  he  can  receive  the  most 
help. 

ARTICLE    III.      THE   SUBJECT-MATTER   OF   EDUCATION. 

I  believe  that  the  social  life  of  the  child  is  the  basis 
of  concentration,  or  correlation,  in  all  his  training  or 
growth.     The  social   life  gives   the  uncon-  concentra- 
scious  unity  and   the  background  of  all  his       **°°' 
efforts  and  of  all  his  attaiiunents. 


12  Educational  Creeds. 

I  believe  that  the  subject-matter  of  the  school  cur- 
riculum should  mark  a  gradual  differentiation  out  of 
the  primitive  unconscious  unity  of  social  life. 

I  believe  that  we  violate  the  child's  nature  and  render 

difficult   the  best   ethical   results   by  introducing   the 

Special      child  too  abruptly  to  a  number  of  special 

studies,     studies,  of  reading,  writing,  geography,  etc., 

out  of  relation  to  this  social  life. 

I  believe,  therefore,  that  the  true  center  of  correla- 
tion on  the  school  subjects  is  not  science,  nor  literature, 
nor  history,  nor  geography,  but  the  child's  own  social 
activities. 

I  believe  that  education  cannot  be  unified  in  the  study 

of  science,  or  so-called  nature  study,  because  apart  from 

human  activity,  nature  itself  is  not  a  unity; 

of         nature  in  itself  is  a  number  of  diverse  objects 

in  space  and  time,  and  to  attempt  to  make  it 

the  center  of  work  by  itself  is  to  introduce  a  principle 

of  radiation  rather  than  one  of  concentration. 

I  believe  that  literature  is  the  reflex  expression  and 
interpretation  of  social  experience  ;  that  hence  it  must 
follow  upon  and  not  precede  such  experi- 
ence.   It,  therefore,  cannot  be  made  the  basis, 
althougli  it  may  be  made  the  summary  of  unification, 

I  believe  once  more  that  history  is  of  educative  value 
in  so  far  as  it  presents  phases  of  social  life  end  growth. 
It  must  be  controlled  by  reference  to  social 
life.  When  taken  simply  as  history  it  is 
thrown  into  the  distant  past  and  becomes  dead  and 
inert.  Taken  as  the  record  of  man's  social  life  and 
progress  it  becomes  full  of  meaning.  I  believe,  however, 
that  it  cannot  be  so  taken  excepting  as  the  child  is  also 
introduced  directly  into  social  life. 

I  believe  accordingly  that  the  primary  basis  of  educa- 
tion is  in  the  child's  powers  at  work  along  the  same 


John  Dewey.  13 

-general  constructive  lines  as  those  wliich  have  brought 
civilization  into  being. 

I  believe  that  the  only  way  to  make  the  child  con- 
scious of  his  social  heritage  is  to  enable  him  The  primary 
to  perform  those  fundamental  types  of  ac-       ***'*'• 
tivity  which  make  civilization  what  it  is. 

I  believe,  therefore,  in  the  so-called  expressive  or 
constructive  activities  as  the  center  of  correlation. 

I  believe  that  this  gives  the  standard  for  the  place  of 
cooking,  sewing,  manual  training,  etc.,  in  the  school. 

I  believe  that  they  are  not  special  studies  which  are 
to  be  introduced  over  and  above  a  lot  of  others  in  the 
way  of  relaxation  or  relief,  or  as  additional 

T7P68  of 

accomplishments.     I  believe  rather  that  they      social 

activity 
represent,  as  types,   fundamental  forms  of 

social  activity;  and  that  it  is  possible  and  desirable  that 

the  child's  introduction  into  the  more  formal  subjects 

of  the  curriculum   be   through   the   medium  of  these 

activities. 

I  believe  that  the  study  of  science  is  educational  in  so 
far  as  it  brings  out  the  materials  and  pro-      science 
cesses  which  make  social  life  what  it  is.  teaching. 

I  believe  that  one  of  the  greatest  difficulties  in  the 
present  teaching  of  science  is  that  the  material  is  pre- 
sented in  purely  objective  form,  or  is  treated  as  a  new 
peculiar  kind  of  experience  which  the  child  can  add  to 
that  which  he  has  already  had.  In  reality,  science  is  of 
value  because  it  gives  the  ability  to  interpret  and  con- 
trol the  experience  already  had.  It  should  be  intro- 
duced, not  as  so  much  new  subject-matter,  but  as 
showing  the  factors  already  involved  in  previous  experi- 
ence and  as  furnishing  tools  by  which  that  experience 
can  be  more  easily  and  effectively  regulated. 

I  believe  that  at  present  we  lose  much  of  the  value  of 
literature  and  language  studies  because  of  our  elimina- 


14  Educalional  Creeds. 

tiou  of  the  social  element.     Luiigiuige  is  nlmost  always 
treated  in    the  books  of  pedagogy  sitnnlv  h,s 
the  expression  of  thought.     It  is  true  that 
language  is  a  logical  instrument,  but  it  is  fundaniertally 
and   pi'imarily  a  social  instrument.      Language  is   the 
device  for  communication  ;  it  is  the  tool  through  whicli 
one  individual  comes  to  share  the  ideas  and  feelings  of 
others.     When  treated  simply  as  a  way  of  getting  in- 
dividual information,  or   as   a   means   of  showing   off 
what  one  has  learned,  it  loses  its  social  motive  and  end. 
I  believe   that  there   is,  therefore,  no  succession  of 
studies  in  the  ideal  school  curriculum.     If  education  is 
life,  all  life  has,  from  the  outset,  a  scientific 
of         aspect;  an  aspect  of  art  and  culture  and  an 
aspect  of  communication.     It  cannot,  there- 
fore, be  true  that  the  proper  studies  for  one  grade  are 
mere  reading  and  writing,  and  that  at  a  later  grade, 
reading,  or  literature,  or  science,  may  be  introduced. 
The  progress  is  not  in  the  succession  of  studies,  but  in 
the   development  of   new    attitudes  towards,  and   new 
interests  in,  experience. 

I  believe,  finally,  that  education  must  be  conceived  as 
a   continuing  reconstruction  of  experience  ; 

tionof      that  the  process  and  the  goal  of  education 
experience.  ,  ,,  ,.  . 

are  one  and  the  same  tiling. 

I  believe  that  to  set  up  any  end  outside  of  education, 
as  furnishing  its  goal  and  standard,  is  to  deprive  the 
educational  process  of  much  of  its  meaning,  and  tends 
to  make  us  rely  upon  false  and  external  stimuli  in  deal- 
ing with  the  child. 


ARTICLE    IV.      THE    NATURE    OF   METHOD. 

I  believe  that  the  question  of  method  is  ultimately 
reducible  to  the  question  of  the  order  of  development  of 


John  Dewey.  15 

the  child's  powers   and  interests.      The  law   for  pre- 

sentiusr  and  treating  material  is  the  law  im- 

Tlie  law 
plicit  within  the  child's  own  nature.  Because         of 

this  is  so  I  believe  the  following  statements 

are  of  supreme  importance  as  determining  the  spirit  in 

which  education  is  carried  on  : 

1.  I  believe  that  the  active  side  precedes  the  passive 

in  the  development  of  the  child  nature;  that  expression 

comes  before  conscious  impression;  that  the 

-        -        ,  J        i.1  Expression 

muscular  development  precedes  the  sensory ;      before 

that  movements  come  before  conscious  sen- 
sations; I  believe  that  consciousness  is  essentially  motor 
or  impulsive;    that   conscious   states   tend   to   project 
themselves  in  action. 

I  believe  that  the  neglect  of  this  principle  is  the  cause 
of  a  large  part  of  the  waste  of  time  and  strength  in 
school  work.  The  child  is  thrown  into  a  passive,  re- 
ceptive, or  absorbing  attitude.  The  conditions  are  such 
that  he  is  not  permitted  to  follow  the  law  of  his  nature; 
the  result  is  friction  and  waste. 

I  believe  that  ideas  (intellectual  and  rational  pro- 
cesses) also  result  from  action  and  devolve  for  the  sake 
of  the  better  control  of  action.  What  we  term  reason  is 
primarily  the  law  of  orderly  or  effective  action.  To 
attempt  to  develop  the  reasoning  powers,  the  powers  of 
judgment,  without  reference  to  the  selection  and  ar- 
rangement of  means  in  action,  is  the  fundamental  fal- 
lacy in  our  present  methods  of  dealing  with  this  matter. 
As  a  result  we  present  the  child  with  arbitrary  symbols. 
Symbols  are  a  necessity  in  mental  development,  but 
they  have  their  place  as  tools  for  economizing  effort; 
presented  by  themselves  they  are  a  mass  of  meaningless 
and  arbitrary  ideas  imposed  from  without. 

2.  I  believe  that  the  image  is  the  great  instrument  of 
instruction.     What  a  child  gets  out  of  any  subject  pre- 


1 6  Educational  Creeds. 

sented  to  him  is  simply  the  images  which  he  himself 
forms  with  regard  to  it. 

I  believe  that  if  nine-tenths  of  the  energy  at  present 

Power  of     directed    towards   making    the    child  learn 

imagery,    certain  things   were  spent    in  seeing    to   it 

that  the  child  was  forming  proper  images,  the  work  of 

instruction  would  be  indefinitely  facilitated. 

I  believe  that  much  of  the  time  and  attention  now 
given  to  the  preparation  and  presentation  of  lessons 
might  be  more  wisely  and  profitably  expended  in  train- 
ing the  child's  power  of  imagery  and  in  seeing  to  it  that 
he  was  continually  forming  definite,  vivid,  and  growing 
images  of  the  various  subjects  with  which  he  comes  in 
contact  in  his  experience. 

3.  I  believe  that  interests  are  the  signs  and  symptoms 
The  child's  of  growing  power.     I  believe  that  they  rep- 
interests,    i-esent  dawning  capacities.     Accordingly  the 
constant  and  careful  observation  of  interests  is  of  the 
armost  importance  for  the  educator. 

I  believe  that  these  interests  are  to  be  observed  as 
showing  the  state  of  development  which  the  child  has 
reached. 

I  believe  that  they  prophesy  the  state  upon  which  ho 
ia  about  to  enter. 

I  believe  that  only  through  the  continual  and  sympa- 
thetic observation  of  childhood's  interests  can  the  adult 
enter  into  the  child's  life  and  see  what  it  is  ready  for, 
and  upon  what  material  it  could  work  most  readily  and 
fruitfully. 

I  believe  that  these  interests  are  neither  to  be  hu- 
mored nor  repressed.  To  repress  interest  is  to  sub- 
stitute the  adult  for  the  child,  and  so  to  weaken  intel- 
lectual curioaity  and  alertness,  to  suppress  initiative, 
and  to  deaden  interest.  To  humor  the  interests  is  to 
substitute  the  trnnsient  for  the  permanent.     The  inter- 


John  Dewey.  17 

est  is  always  the  sign  of  some  power  below;  the  impor- 
tant thing  is  to  discover  this  power.  To  humor  the 
interest  is  to  fail  to  penetrate  below  the  surface,  and  its 
sure  result  is  to  substitute  caprice  and  whim  for  genu- 
ine interest. 

4.  I  believe  that  the  emotions  are  the  reflex  of 
actions. 

I  believe  that  to  endeavor  to  stimulate  or 
arouse   the   emotions   apart  from   their  corresponding 
activities  is  to  introduce  an  unhealthy  and  morbid  state 
of  mind, 

I  believe  that  if  we  can  only  secure  right  habits  of 
action  and  thought,  with  reference  to  the  good,  the 
true,  and  the  beautiful,  the  emotions  will  for  the  most 
part  take  care  of  themselves, 

I  believe  that  next  to  deadness  and  dullness,  formal- 
ism and  routine,  our  education  is  threatened  with  no 
greater  evil  than  sentimentalism. 

I  believe  that  this  sentimentalism  is  the  necessary 
result  of  the  attempt  to  divorce  feeling  from  action. 


ARTICLE  V.      THE    SCHOOL  AND   SOCIAL    PROGRESS. 

I  believe  that  education  is  the  fundamental  method 
of  social  progress  and  reform. 

I  believe  that  all  reforms  which  rest  simply  upon  the 
enactment  of  law,  or  the  threatening  of  cer-      special 
tain  penalties,  or  upon  changes  in  mechanical    Progress, 
or  outward  arrangements,  are  transitory  and  futile. 

I  believe  that  education  is  a  regulation  of  the  process 
of  coming  to  share  in  the  social  consciousness  ;  and  that 
the  adjustment  of  individual  activity  on  the  basis  of  this 
social  consciousness  is  the  only  sure  method  of  social 
reconstruction. 


1 8  Educational  Creeds. 

I  believe  tliut  this  conception  has  due  regnrd  for  both 
the  individualistic  and  socialistic  ideals.  It  is  duly  indi- 
Xwo  vidual  because  it  recognizes  the  formation  of 
ideals.  ^  certain  character  as  the  only  genuine  basis 
of  right  living.  It  is  socialistic  because  it  recognizes 
that  this  right  character  is  not  to  be  formed  by  merely 
individual  precept,  example,  or  exhortation,  but  rather 
by  the  influence  of  a  certain  form  of  institutional  or 
community  life  upon  the  individual,  and  that  the  social 
organism  through  the  school,  as  its  organ,  may  deter- 
mine ethical  results. 

I  believe  that  in  the  ideal  school  we  have  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  individualistic  and  the  institutional 
ideals. 

I  believe  that  the  community's  duty  to  education  is, 
therefore,  its  paramount  moral  duty.  By  law  and  pun- 
ishment, bv  social  agitation  and  discussion. 

The  Ereat  •'     -  o  ^ 

duty  of     society  can  regulate  and  form  itself  in  a  more 

^*^  ^  ^'  or  less  haphazard  and  chance  way.  But 
through  education  society  can  formulate  its  own  pur- 
poses, can  organize  its  own  means  and  resources,  and 
thus  shape  itself  with  definiteness  and  economy  in  the 
direction  in  which  it  wishes  to  move. 

I  believe  that  when  society  once  recognizes  the  possi- 
bilities in  this  direction,  and  the  obligations  which  these 
possibilities  impose,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  the 
resources  of  time,  attention,  and  money  which  will  be 
put  at  the  disposal  of  the  educator. 

I  believe  it  is  the  business  of  every  one  interested  in 
education  to  insist  upon  the  school  as  the  primary  and 
most  effective  interest  of  social  progress  and  reform  in 
order  that  society  may  be  awakened  to  realize  what  the 
school  stands  for,  and  aroused  to  the  necessity  of  en- 
dowing the  educator  with  sufficient  equipment  properly 
to  perform  his  task. 


John  Dewey.  19 

I  believe  that  education  thus  conceived  marks  the 
most  perfect  and  intimate  union  of  science 

1        .  •      1  1     •      1  •  Union  of 

and  art  conceivable  in  human  experience.        science  and 

I  believe  that  the  art  of  thus  giving  shape 
to  human  powers  and  adapting  them  to  social  service  is 
the  supreme  art;  one  calling  into  its  service  the  best  of 
artists;  that  no  insight,  sympathy,  tact,  executive  power 
is  too  great  for  such  service. 

I  believe  that  with  the  growth  of  psychological  ser- 
vice, giving  added  insight  into  individual  structure  and 
laws  of  growth ;  and  with  growth  of  social  science,  add- 
ing to  our  knowledge  of  the  right  organization  of  indi- 
viduals, all  scientific  resources  can  be  utilized  for  the 
purposes  of  education. 

I  believe  that  when  science  and  art  thus  join  hands 
the  most  commanding  motive  for  human  action  will  be 
reached;  the  most  genuine  springs  of  human  conduct 
aroused,  and  the  best  service  that  human  nature  is 
capable  of  guaranteed. 

I  believe,  finally,  that  the  teacher  is  engaged,  not 
simply  in  the  training  of  individuals,  but  in  xhe teacher's 
the  formation  of  the  proper  social  life.  office. 

I  believe  that  every  teacher  should  realize  the  dignity 
of  his  calling;  that  he  is  a  social  servant  set  apart  for 
the  maintenance  of  proper  social  order  and  the  securing 
of  the  right  social  growth. 

I  believe  that  in  this  way  the  teacher  always  is  the 
prophet  of  the  true  God  and  the  usherer  in  of  the  true 
kingdom  of  God. 


/^^^^(hus. 


20  Educational  Creeds. 

[Note. — The  isolation  of  the  teacher  is  a  thing  of  the  past. 
The  processes  of  education  have  come  to  be  recognized  as  fuiida 
mental  and  vital  in  any  attempt  to  improve  human  conditions  and 
elevate  society. 

The  missionary  and  social  reformer  have  long  been  looking  to 
education  for  counsel  and  aid  in  their  most  difficult  undertakings. 
They  have  viewed  wtth  interest  and  pleasure  the  broadening  of 
pedagogy  so  as  to  make  it  include  not  only  experimental  physiol- 
ogy and  child-study,  but  the  problems  of  motor  training,  physical 
culture,  hygiene,  and  the  treatment  of  defectives  and  delinquents 
of  every  class. 

The  schoolmaster,  always  conservative,  has  not  found  it  easy 
to  enter  this  large  field;  for  he  has  often  failed  to  realize  how 
rich  and  fruitful  the  result  of  such  researcheis  are;  but  remarkable 
progress  has  been  made,  and  a  changed  attitude  on  the  part  of 
educators  is  the  result.  And  how  could  it  be  otherwise  when  the 
oldest  aud  most  renowned  institutions  of  learning  in  the  land  are 
giving  a  conspicuous  place  to  the  newer  and  better  pedagogy  in 
their  curriculum  ? 

Another,  and  perhaps  the  latest,  phase  of  the  educational  move- 
ment is  the  conviction  that  the  school  is  a  social  institution,  that 
its  aims  are  social,  and  that  its  m  uiagement,  discipline,  and 
method  of  instruction  should  be  dominated  by  this  idea.  The 
mere  contemplation  of  the  proposition  must  be  accompanied  in 
the  mind  of  every  candid  person  by  a  sense  of  our  shortcomings 
in  this  respect. 

Dr.  Dewey's  Pedagogical  Cr  ed  shows  how  the  concentrated 
agencies  of  the  school  should  bring  the  child  to  share  in  the  in- 
herited resources  of  the  race.  It  points  out  how  discipline  and 
method  should  be  influenced  to  this  end. 

Samuel  T.  Dutton, 
Supt.  of  Schools,  BrooJdine,  Mass. 


II.    THE   PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  John  S.  Clark. 

The  substance  of  ray  pedagogical  creed  is  contained 
in  the  following  comments  on  the  creed  of  Professor 
John  Dewey,  of  the  University  of  Chicago  : 

The  pedagogical  creed  of  Professor  Dewey,  as  pub- 
lished in  The  School  Journal  of  January  16,  1897,  is  a 
notable  contribution  to  educational  literature.  Since 
Spencer's  famous  essay,  over  thirty  years  ago,  there 
have  been  few  statements  of  the  basis,  function,  and 
purposes  of  education  that  are  so  sound,  so  Dewey's 
sensible,  and  so  suggestive  as  this  word  from  creed. 
Chicago  University.  Educational  thinkers  and  workers 
owe  Professor  Dewey  a  genuine  debt  for  his  comprehen- 
sive setting  forth  of  the  problem  as  he  sees  it. 

We  have  here  one  of  the  first  satisfactory  statements 
of  the  interrelation  between  the  psychological  and  the 
social  aspects  of  education.  Investigation  into  chil- 
dren's individual  capacities,  interests,  and  habits  is  to 
be  pursued,  we  are  told,  not  wholly  out  of  deference  to 
the  innate  self,  but,  above  all,  for  the  sake  of  discovering 
the  most  feasible  ways  of  helping  the  individual  to 
receive  and  to  give  his  share  of  the  life  of  the  race. 
"All  education,"  says  Professor  Dewey,  "proceeds  by 
the  participation  of  tlie  individual  in  the  social  con- 
sciousness of  the  race." 

TJtree  Principles. — I  take  it  that  the  professor's  main 
points  of  emphasis  are  three  : 

21 


2  2  Educational  Creeds. 

1.  The  individuality  of  the  child  :  his  personal  capaci- 
ties, interests,  and  powers. 

2.  The  social  environment  of  the  child  as  a  world  of 
conscious  intelligence  ;  the  gradual  understanding  of 
this  social  world  by  the  individual  through  coming  into 
conscious  touch  with  its  best  aspects. 


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w^^^p^^^^^ 

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^^^^^^K                          •*  ^^. ,. 

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^^^^f^^^                       \l>^B 

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1 

'■^       ••'-•"^*5!#»*s ..J' 

1 

John  S.  Clark. 


3.  The  creative  activities  of  the  child  as  the  point  of 
concentration  in  his  educational  development ;  the  crea- 
tive activities  as  the  means  through  which  the  individ- 
ual does  thus  gradually  come  into  the  full  command  of 
himself  and  the  full  appreciation  of  the  social  whole  of 
which  he  is  to  become  a  part. 


John  S.  Clark.  23 

The  reasons  given  for  the  importance  of  considering 
the  child's  individuality  are  reasons  which  ought  to  do 
much  towards  keeping  modern  child-study  on  a  sensible 
basis.  According  to  Professor  Dewey,  the  child's  per- 
sonal instincts,  interests,  capacities,  and  hab- 
its merit  attention  and  consideration,  on  the  ity  of  the 
ground  that  these,  under  normal  conditions, 
indicate,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  probable  lines  of 
adaptability  to  social  needs  and  conditions.  Child-study 
acquires  a  new  value  when  children  begin  to  be  studied, 
not  simply  for  the  sake  of  cataloguing  them  as  speci- 
mens, but  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  seeing  along  what  lines 
they  are  likely  to  be  most  susceptible  to  influences  of 
environment,  and  along  what  lines  they  are  likely  to  be 
most  capable  of  effective  reaction  on  their  natural  and 
their  social  environment  through  creations  for  the  social 
benefit.     These  points  are  indeed  of  vital  importance. 

If  I  may  be  allowed  to  carry  the  thought  a  step  fur- 
ther, let  the  idea  of  selection  by  the  teacher  be  added 
right  here.  Let  child- study  include  in  its  qy\^^ 
legitimate  range  the  sympathetic  observation  "tidy, 
of  children  to  discover  what  elements  in  the  social 
environment  appeal  most  to  the  higher  elements  of  a 
particular  child's  make-up.  Let  child-study  include  in 
its  range  also  observation  to  discover  which  of  the  child's 
natural  aptitudes  and  habits  of  creative  activity  are 
correlated  with  the  finest  feeling  and  highest  thinking; 
into  what  sorts  of  activity  the  child  seems  able  to  pnt 
the  largest  expression  of  his  best  self.  In  other  words, 
let  child-study  recognize  the  idealizing  powers  of  the 
child,  and  his  responsiveness  to  ideals,  as  well  as  to  bare, 
uncharacterized  facts. 

If  we  once  assume  what  Professor  Dewey  certainly 
will  grant,  that  in  this  life  some  things  are  better  worth 
having  and  doing  than  other  things,  it  is  certainly  of 


24  Educational  Creeds. 

great  importance  for  teachers  to  make,  if  possible,  a 
Qualitative  qualitative  as  well  as  a  quantitative  analysis 
analysis,  ^f  ^jjg  personalities  with  which  they  deal,  and 
to  consider  the  best  way  of  bringing  out  the  best  in 
these  personalities.  When  we  are  told  that  the  process 
and  the  goal  of  education  should  be  the  continual  re- 
constructio]!  of  experience  through  bringing  the  indi- 
vidual more  and  more  into  harmony  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  race  we  must  assume  that  it  is  the  race 
consciousness  of  the  best  things  that  is  meant. 

It  seems  to  me  that  from  the  very  first  the  teacher's 

task  of  selecting  the  influences  which  shall 
^/nslfht!*^    play  on  the  child    ought   to  be  aided  by  a 

better  knowledge  of  the  comparative  respon- 
siveness of  the  child's  simple  animal  nature,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  his  higher  spiritual  nature  on  the  other 
hand.  Such  insight,  where  it  does  exist,  means,  of 
course,  an  immense  saving  of  time  and  labor,  and  an 
avoidance  of  some  discouraging  failures. 

Just  here  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  Professor 
Dewey's  definition  of  the  function  of  the  teacher  seems 

to  reduce  the  influence  of  the  teacher's  per- 
pcMomoity.  sonality   to   unnecessarily  low   terms.     His 

feeling  in  the  matter  is  apparently  that  of 
vigorous  reaction  and  revolt  against  the  autocracy  of 
the  schoolmaster,  as  he  used  to  be.  But  does  not  the 
present  revolt  against  arbitrariness  and  dogmatism 
carry  us  a  trifle  too  far?  Is  it  wise  to  leave  the  child 
so  entirely  to  his  own  devices,  and  make  him  work  out 
his  own  salvation  at  such  expensive  outlay  of  time  and 
futile  effort  ?  I  believe  that  there  should  still  be  a  use 
for  the  teacher  over  and  above  the  rather  vague  "selec- 
tion of  influences"  to  bear  on  the  child.  It  ought  to  be 
possible  still  for  some  ideas  to  be  caught  by  contact  with 
a  superior   mind,  for   some   knowledge   to   be   gained 


John  S.  Clark.  25 

through  another's  experience,  as  well  as  through  the 
child's  own  experience.*  If  this  were  not  true,  we 
older  folks,  who  ended  our  school  life  many  years  before 
present  educational  methods  came  into  repute,  would 
be  reduced  to  the  humiliating  necessity  of  declaring 
that  our  own  school  days  were  barren  of  profit. 
Proclamation  of  the  absolute  ineffectiveness  of  former 
methods  in  education  is  a  sort  of  boomerang,  which 
turns  in  its  course  and  conies  back  to  belabor  every 
grown-up  reformer  with  the  assertion  of  his  own  mental 
outfit  and  enfeebled  mental  condition. 


SOCIAL   ENVIRONMENT   OF   THE   CHILD. 

When  we  consider  Professor  Dewey's  second  point 
of  emphasis,  the  social  environment  of  the  child,  we  see 
how  far  he  is  in  advance  of  most  of  his  con- 
temporaries   in  educational  literature,  and    Environ- 
how  far  our  educational  discussion  has  ad- 
vanced during  the  last  few  years.     He  does  not  overlook 
or  undervalue  the  importance  of  the  natural  environ- 
ment.    He  sees  the  importance  of  the  study  of  nature 


*  "  Now  whatever  may  be  said  of  pedagogical  ideals  and  apparatus, 
thero  is  one  factor  in  education  that  has  remained  essentially  un- 
changed from  age  to  age.  This  factor  is  the  personal — the  native, 
iudefluiible  something  to  the  teacher  that  wins  and  inspires  the  pupil. 
Of  such  paramount  importance  is  this  quality  that  nobody  thinks  of 
disputing  the  dictum  of  Jules  Simon — 'The  master  is  the  school.' 
Mr.  Emerson  has  said  substantially  the  same  thing — '  It  matters 
little  what  you  learn,  the  question  is  with  whom  you  learn.'  Dean 
Stanley  insisted  that  the  dullest,  most  vicious  boy  at  Rugby  could 
not  come  in  contact  with  Dr.  Arnold  without  receiving  a  moral  and 
intellectual  impulse. 

"  It  was  the  personal  element  that  told  most  effectively,  for  many  of 
his  contemporaries  were  his  equals  in  intellect  and  his  superiors  in 
scholarship — the  personal  element  which  it  is  so  diflftcult  to  charac- 
terize and  so  impossible  to  measure.  'The  system  is  lost  in  the 
man,'  says  Dean  Stanley;  'the  recollections  of  the  head-master  of 
Rugby  are  inseparable  from  the  recollections  of  the  personal  guide 
and  friend  of  his  scholars.' "—Levebett  Wilson  Spbino,  D.D.,  on 
"  Mark.  Hopkins,  Teacher." 


26  Edutaiional  Creeds. 

for  herself  and  in  lierself,  but  be  rightly  recognizes  the 
social  environment,  tlie  world  of  human  activity,  as  the 
most  significant  source  of  help  in  the  education  of  the 
child. 

Here  again  I  ask  leave  to  carry  his  expressed  thought 
one  stage  further.     I  feel  that  he  would  certainly  not 
Social       overlook  the  absolute  need  of  a  distinct  recog- 
ideais.      nition  of  social  ideals  in  any  plan  or  course 
of  education  that  undertakes  to  bring  the  individual  and 
society  into  truly  harmonious  relations.     He  says  that 
the  school,  in  its  presentation  of  social  conditions,  should 
be  simply  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  home.     This 
could  not  be  better  put,  if  only  the  homes  of  our  public- 
school  children  were  ideal  homes. 
But  what  is  the  fact  ? 

I  assume  that  we  are  speaking  of  homes  and  schools 
in  cities  and  large  towns.  The  great  mass  of  our 
Actual  school  population  is  actually  found  sur- 
conditions.  j-ounded  by  distinctly  urban  conditions  ; 
statistics  show  that  the  tendency  of  population  is  more 
and  more  towards  centralizing  in  cities.  The  schools  of 
the  future  are,  without  doubt,  to  be  made  up  more  and 
more  of  children  born  and  reared  in  cities.  How  can 
the  actual  average  city  home,  the  home  of  the  average 
public-school  child,  be  counted  worthy  of  being  model 
and  pattern  for  the  school  itself?  Heaven  forbid! 
The  average  city  home  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  bit  of  social 
environment  whose  lessons  and  influences  too  often 
need  prompt  neutralizing  and  replacing  by  influences  of 
a  higher  and  finer  sort  that  have  to  be  consciously,  in- 
tentionally selected,  directed,  and  emphasized  by  the 
teacher.  The  very  existence  of  laws  for  compulsory 
school  attendance  is  so  much  emphasis  on  the  recog- 
nized inefficiency  of  the  average  home  as  a  preparation 
for  reputable  citizenship. 


John  S.  Clark,  27 

Speaking  broadly,  there  is,  at  the  present  time,  greater 
need  of  the  school  influencing  the  home  through  ideals 
of  proper  living,  through  bringing  the  child  school 
in  contact  with  distinctly  high  ideals  of  social  intiiences. 
life,  than  of  the  home  influencing  the  school.  In  other 
words,  the  school  should  mean  not  simply  the  average 
home,  broadened  out  or  raised  to  the  wth  power,  but 
rather  the  home  elevated  and  inspired  by  ideals  dis- 
tinctly higher  than  those  of  the  average  city  houseiiold. 

Again,  Professor  Dewey  seems  to  overstate — in  one 
direction — the  matter  of  surrounding  the  child  with  the 
real  active  conditions  of  society,  as  the  most  preparing 
helpful  influence  under  which  to  grow.  Tlie  *'"'  ^^' 
author  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  school  is  life,  and 
that  it  ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  preparation  for 
life.  I  think  the  extreme  ground  taken  here  shows  a 
healthy,  human  reaction  from  the  lifeless  formality  of 
the  old-fashioned  schools.  But  the  school  of  long  ago 
had  its  element  of  Tightness  after  all.  School  life  is 
indeed  real  life;  but  it  is,  at  the  same  time,  in  another 
sense,  only  a  preparation  for  later  and  a  much  broader 
life.  Any  one  day's  adult  life  is  real  in  one  sense,  and 
in  another  sense  a  preparing  for  the  next  day. 

"  .  .  .  .  All  experience  is  an  arch  wherethro* 
Gleams  that  untravelled  world  whose  margin  fade 
Forever  and  forever  while  I  move." 

To  regard  the  school  as  real  social  living,  to  intro- 
duce real  life  into  the  school,  there  must  be  brought  in 
the  selfishness,  which  animates  this  real  life, 
and  the  competitive  rivalry,  which  makes  ^ifl^dl"*^ 
such  a  demand  for  preparatory  drills  and 
training  in  all  the  important  activities.  I  cannot  help 
feeling  that  the  attempt  to  introduce  real  life  into  the 
school,  to  construct  the  school  on  the  basis  of  real  life, 


2  8  Educational  Creeds. 

would  quickly  destroy  its  main  function  as  a  social  in- 
stitution. The  real  life  of  the  streets  of  Chicago,  New 
York,  or  Boston,  or  of  any  town,  could  not,  profitably, 
be  brought  into  the  school,  for  that  very  life  needs  the 
school  and  the  church  at  one  end  of  the  social  scale,  and 
the  police  court  at  the  other  end,  to  protect  it  from  it- 
self. If  Professor  Dewey  means  that  the  school  should, 
in  its  discipline  and  its  occupations,  typify  the  finer 
social  ideals,  and  seek  to  surround  the  child  with  those 
influences  that  especially  appeal  to  his  higher  nature, 
then  I  agree  with  him.  I  feel  that  in  our  educational 
discussions  we  have  only  just  entered  upon  the  con- 
siderations of  the  social  bearing  of  education,  and  while 
Professor  Dewey's  remarks  touching  the  school  and  its 
relations  to  the  home,  and  to  social  life  in  general,  are 
very  suggestive,  I  feel  that  they  will  bear  further  exposi- 
tion. 

NEW   BASIS   OF   C01S"CEN"TRATI0N. 

It  is  a  great  encouragement  to  find  Professor  Dewey 
putting  into  such   vigorous  affirmations   the   doctrine 

that  the  point  of  educational  concentration 
actMties.    ^'^  elementary  schools  should   be  upon  the 

social  or  constructive  activities  of  the  child 
himself.  I  lieartily  hope  this  utterance  of  his  is  setting 
people  to  thinking  along  this  line.  Recent  discussions 
of  correlation  and  concentration  have  been  too  largely 
confined  to  the  comparative  values  of  the  so-called 
"form  studies"  and  the  "content  studies."  By  pre- 
senting the  creative  activities  of  the  child  in  their 
social  aspects  as  the  true  point  of  concentration  Pro- 
fessor Dewey  has  carried  the  whole  discussion  of  con- 
centration, and  of  educational  value  as  well,  up  to  a 
much   higher  and   more   inclusive   plane   than  it  has 


John  S.  Clark.  29 

hitherto  occupied.  From  this  higher  standpoint  both 
the  form  studies  and  the  content  studies  become  of 
especial  importance,  and  each  class  takes  a  new  value, 
as  both  classes  are  seen  to  be  closely  interrelated  as 
necessary  means  for  the  proper  development  of  the 
individual  towards  social  ends.  Let  me  quote  a  charac- 
teristic passage  or  two : 

"I  believe  accordingly  that  the  primary  basis  of  edu- 
cation is  in  the  child's  powers  at  work  along  the  sime 
general  constructive  lines  as  those  which  have  broiiglit 
civilization  into  being. 

"  I  believe  that  the  only  way  to  make  the  child  con- 
scious of  his  social  heritage  is  to  enable  him  to  perform 
those  fundamental  types  of  activity  which  make  civil- 
ization what  it  is. 

"  I  believe,  therefore,  in  the  so-called  expressive  or 
constructive  activities  as  the  center  of  correlation." 

But  Professor  Dewey's  enumeration  of  the  lines  of 
educational  work  involving  the  exercise  of  these  typical 
constructive  activities  can  hardly  express  his 
full  thought.  Curiously  enough,  though  he  activitiM. 
seems  to  have  in  mind  the  constructive  ac- 
tivities, which  are  the  basis  and  framework  of  a  pro- 
gressive civilization,  he  mentions  only  "cooking,  sew- 
ing, manual  training,  etc.,"  as  studies  involving  the 
typical  activities  of  the  race.  I  want  to  round  out  his 
own  words  and  include  those  products  of  the  creative 
activities  which  actually  measure  the  quality,  the  value, 
of  human  civilization — human  art.  Cooking,  sewing, 
and  building  construction  must,  naturally,  be  under- 
stood as  having  chiefly  to  do  with  merely  physical  needs 
and  desires,  and  as  contributing  to  the  upbuilding  of  a 
civilization  of  an  essentially  material  sort.  But  tliis  is 
not  all  of  civilization.  It  is  only  the  substructure  of  a 
true  civilization. 


30  Educational  Creeds. 

The  civilization  which  Professor  Dewey  must  have 
meant  is  not  manifested  solely  in  effective  means  of 
Creative  securing  food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  for  the 
abUity.  comfort  and  culture  of  men's  bodies.  Be- 
sides all  this,  it  shows  itself  in  the  creations  of  litera- 
ture, music,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture.  These, 
the  various  phases  of  art,  are  the  real  measure  of  man's 
distance  from  his  savage  progenitors.  And  these,  as 
they  exist  to  day,  conspire  with  the  art  instincts  of  each 
new-born  man  to  urge  him  on  to  new  art  activities  in 
his  own  person. 


ART   ACTIVITIES   IN   EDUCATION. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  ground  explicitly  taken  by 
Professor  Dewey  logically  necessitates  his  advancing 
this  one  step  farther  and  recognizing: 

1.  The  importance   of  Art   as   the  embodiment   of 

much  the  better  part  of  the  experience  of 
ronmentr    ^^®  race,  and  forming  an  essential  part  of 
the  child's  social  environment,  with  which 
the  school  ought  to  bring  him  into  close  touch. 

2.  The  importance  of  the  aesthetic  nature  of  the  indi- 
vidual, its  responsiveness  to  the  art  creations  of  the 
race,  and  the  importance  of  giving  him  opportunity  for 
creative  self-expression  in  forms  of  art  of  the  very 
highest  social  significance  and  value. 

Art,  as  a  part  of  the  child's  social  environment,  is 

pre-eminently  important,  because  it  is  that  part  of  the 

,.    ,.    ^.      environment  in  which    nature   and  human 
Idealization. 

nature  are  united.  Ihe  gradual  growth  of 
art  has  involved  not  only  distinct  mental  imaging  of 
outward  facts,  but  also  continual  idealization  of  these 
outward  facts.     By  the  idealization  of  a  fact  I  mean 


John  S.  Clark.  31 

that  combination  of  insight  and  creative  imagination 
which  grasps  not  merely  the  existing  and  actual,  but 
also  the  possible,  and  then,  imaging  the  possible,  pro- 
ceeds to  create  a  new  embodiment  for  it.  In  this  sense, 
the  transformation  of  a  parched  Western  valley  into 
fertile  farm  lands,  by  means  of  irrigation,  is  a  piece  of 
idealization  on  the  part  of  the  civil  engineer  and  his 
workmen.  The  transformation  of  a  quantity  of  quar- 
ried stone,  timber,  etc.,  into  a  great  Congressional  Li- 
brary is  a  piece  of  idealization  on  the  part  of  the  archi- 
tect and  his  artisans.  The  transformation  of  a  bit  of 
stretched  canvas  and  a  handful  of  powdered  minerals 
of  different  colors  into  a  Sistine  Madonna  is  a  piece  of 
idealization  on  the  part  of  the  great  painter. 

It  is  emphatically  true,  as  Professor  Dewey  says,  that 
"the  image  is  the  great  instrument  of  instruction. 
What  a  child  gets  out  of  any  subject  pre- 
sented to  him  is  simply  the  images  which  he 
himself  forms  with  regard  to  it."  In  the  light  of  this 
thought,  it  must  seem  all  the  more  desirable  that  the 
child  shall  gradually  learn  to  image  ideals,  as  well  as 
literal  facts;  that  he  shall  learn  to  use  his  own  simple, 
primitive  images  of  things  as  they  are,  for  material 
wherewith  to  build  up,  in  imagination,  things  as  they 
need  to  be  and  may  be.  And  this  is  idealization — the 
completest  revelation  of  himself  which  the  individual 
can  possibly  make. 

The  art  activities,  as  practicable  for  children — mod- 
eling, drawing,  painting,  "  making" — are    the  simpler 
forms  of    the  activities    practiced    by   the 
world's  art  workers;  these  are  the  A  B  C  of   fS^tiw! 
all  the  world's  art.     It  is  when  these  creative 
and  constructive  art  activities  are  included  in  the  point 
of  educational  concentration  in  elementary  schools  that 
we  shall  be  using  with  the  truest  economy  all  the  forces 


32  Educational  Creeds. 

and  opportunities  of  the  school  combined  with  all  the 
best  activities  of  the  individual. 

The  constructive  social  activities  must,  therefore, 
have  a  distinctly  ideal  element  in  them,  in  order  to  ex- 
ercise and  utilize  the  best  part  of  the  child  and  make 
his  powers  and  capacities  most  promisiug  for  the  social 
good. 

What  Professor  Dewey  says  of  the  activu  element  in 

child  nature  taking  precedence  of  the  passive  muscular 

The  active    activity,  preceding  the  sensory,  is  very  im- 

eiement.  portant  and  suggestive.  Ilis  energetic  pro- 
test against  vague  emotion  and  sentimentalism,  and 
against  the  dangerous  separation  of  feeling  from  action 
to  some  definite  purpose,  is  a  protest  that  is  greatly 
needed  at  the  present  time.  I  wish  that  he  had  gone 
somewhat  further  in  this  direction,  and  made  some 
definite  statements  about  the  basis  of  conscious  mental 
training,  and  the  necessity  for  it. 

Medical  authorities  tell  us  that,  physiologically  speak- 
ing, nerve  fibers  are  the  only  things  that  can  be  actually 
trained.  We  are  told  that  muscle  in  itself  can- 
diMoverieiu  ^^^'  properly  speaking,  be  trained.  All  that 
muscle  can  do  is  to  contract  and  relax  in  obe- 
dience to  nervous  impulse.  The  human  body  is  so  con- 
stituted that  the  simpler  fundamental,  muscular  move- 
ments, breathing,  winking,  etc., are  performed  automatic- 
ally, as  they  are  in  animals.  As  the  afferent  nerves  bring 
their  sense- messages  to  the  nerve  centers,  the  efferent 
nerves  respojid  witli  commands  to  muscular  reaction,  pro- 
ducing "  motor  discharge  "  of  energy.  Experiments  with 
frogs  and  other  animals  have  many  times  demonstrated 
the  exquisite  automatic  balance  between  action  and 
reaction  in  the  nervous  system  of  creatures  of  simple 
orgariization.     Authcrilies  in  anatomy  and  physiology 


John  S.  Clark.  33 

tell  us  that  as  the  nervous  system  becomes  more  com- 
plicated, first  by  the  multiplication  of  nerve  centers 
connected  with  each  other,  and  then  by  the  connection 
of  all  these  with  a  sort  of  central  power-house  of  nervous 
energy  in  the  bruin,  the  creature  becomes  more  and 
more  capable  of  controlling  the  reaction  of  his  own 
nerves.  An  impulse  to  motor  discharge  may  be  checked, 
or  entirely  altered  in  character  and  application,  as  a 
result  of  the  consensus  of  impulse  from  the  many  con- 
nected nerve  centers,  and  especially  as  a  result  of  calling 
in  the  decisive  power  of  the  will  to  settle  the  balance. 
One  person  responds  instantly  with  the  appropriate, 
instinctive  nervous  reaction  to  each  new  sensation. 
His  mind  is  certainly  active,  but  its  activity  is  of  a  con- 
fused, helter-skelter  sort.  His  thinking  is  desultory,  for 
each  change  of  sight  or  sound  changes  the  direction  of 
his  reaction  on  his  environment. 

Another  person  lias  gradually  learned  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction  between   one   sort  of    reaction   and   another, 

assuming   more   and    more   positive  control 

^,         ,     ,  TT     1  Self-control. 

over  the  whole  nervous  organism.     He  learns 

to  say  to  himself,  "  Pay  no  attention  to  this  message 

just  received,  give  attention  to  that  one.     Do  not  react 

(with  a  turn  of  the  head)  to  that  impression  of  sound 

(testifying  that  some  one  has  entered  the  room),  but 

listen  to  the  person  who  is  talking  to  you,  or  image 

clearly  and  consecutively  the  ideas  for  which  the  words 

stand  in  the  book  you  are  reading." 

This  person's  mind,  we  say,  is  self -controlled,  disci- 
plined. This  person's  mind  is  not  a  mere  machine,  set 
going  by  the  heat  generated  in  the  contact  of  environ- 
ment with  physical  organism  and  working  automatic- 
ally.    It  is  something  that  he  controls  and  uses. 

Now,  if  it  is  this  self-controlled,  disciplined  sort  of 


34  Educational  Creeds. 

mind  which  we  wish  to  develop  in  children,  it  wouia 
appear  that  mental  discipline  and  training 

disciple,  should  be  essential  elements  in  education. 
The  suggestive  analogy  between  the  growth 
of  the  individual  and  the  progress  of  human  civilization 
sometimes  gets  twisted  out  of  gear  right  here.  "We  find 
ourselves  assuming  that  the  civilization  of  the  race 
simply  "growed,"  like  Topsy,  and  without  human  effort, 
and  that  in  order  that  the  individual  may  participate  in 
the  experience  of  the  race  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  keep  the 
gates  of  his  senses  wide  open  and  wait  for  mental  per- 
fection to  come  in.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  neither 
the  civilization  of  the  race  nor  the  rounded  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  can  be  depended  upon  to  come 
by  that  royal  road. 

Civilization  has  been  largely  the  fruit  of  deliberate 
effort,  and  positive  overcoming  of  the  poorer  by  the 
Individual-  better,  the  lesser  by  the  greater.  Civilization 
^*™'  means  not  go-as-you-please  individualism, 
but  conscious,  purposive  individualism,  moving  to  the 
highest  social  good  under  law  and  order.  I  am  con- 
vinced, simply  on  the  ground  of  race  development,  that 
the  education  of  the  individual  ought  to  have  a  strong 
element  of  the  overcoming,  the  mastering,  spirit  about 
it.  The  will  ought  to  be  invoked  for  getting  more  and 
more  perfect  control  of  the  nerves,  training  these  into 
prompt  obedience  to  the  commands  that  come  from  the 
central  office  of  the  brain.  Then  all  the  activity  of 
whicli  the  individual  is  capable,  or  of  which  he  becomes 
capable,  can  be  brought  into  positive  harmony  with  the 
man's  ideals,  directed  in  accordance  with  the  mind's 
judgment,  and  made  outwardly  effective  in  the  highest 
degree  for  tlie  genei-al  social  welfare. 

And  tliis  brings  us  direcily  to  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  the  child  is  something  far  and  away  from  be- 


John  S.  Clark.  35 

iiig  the  mere  sum  of  his  physical  attributes.     We  have 
to    recognize   that   he   possesses  a  spiritual 
nature,  that  transcends  his  physical  powers     spiritnai 
or  environment — that    he    has    a    divinely 
implanted  soul. 

As  I  have  before  taken  occasion  to  observe,  the  quick- 
ening of  this  indwelling  spirit  in  a  child  is  the  vital 
point  in  his  education,  and  its  development  needs  the 
help  of  all  the  highest  spiritual  influences  at  our  dis- 
posal. Spirit  is  acted  upon  more  by  the  incentive  of 
what  is  itself  spiritual  than  through  the  influence  of 
what  is  itself  material.  We  need  the  influence  derived 
from  association  with  nature;  we  need  the  help  of  the 
finest  ideals  crystallized  for  us  through  the  ages  into 
works  of  art,  and  forming  a  spiritual  world  within  or 
upon  the  material  world;  above  all  do  we  need  the  help 
of  the  finest  attainable  personality  in  the  teacher.  The 
influences  of  these,  wisely  brought  to  bear  on  the 
creative  aesthetic  activities  of  the  growing  child,  will 
certainly  make  the  school  what  Professor  Dewey  believes 
it  should  be,  the  most  important  of  all  social,  institu- 
tions. 

The  more   Professor   Dewey's  Pedagogical  Creed  is 
studied  in  all  its  implications,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  stands 
not  for  educational  revolution,  or  anarchy, 
but  for  positive,  sensible,  educational  evolu-  ^evointion^ 
tion  and  construction  in  conformity  to  the 
highest  social  ideals;  and  in  this  sense  it  might  well  be 
taken,  not  as  a  personal  creed,  but  as  the  creed  of  the 
New  Education. 


III.    THE   PEDAGOGICAL   CEEED 


of  William  T.  Hakris, 


U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education. 

Having  been  asked  to  write  a  brief  statement  of  my 
educational  creed,  I  set  down  what  I  consider  to  be  im- 
portant principles,  without,  however,  taking 
^de^ined.'^    the  pains  to  arrange  them  in  any  systematic 
order.     Many  years  ago,  on  being  asked  for  a 
definition  of  education  I  described  it  as  the  process  by 

which  the  individual 
is  elevated  into  the  spe- 
cies, and  explained  this 
brief  and  technical  defi- 
nition by  saying  that 
education  gives  the  in- 
dividual the  wisdom 
derived  from  the  ex- 
perience of  the  race. 
It  teaches  him  how  his 
species,  that  is  to  say, 
mankind  in  general, 
have  learned  what  na- 
ture is  and  what  are  its 
processes  and  laws,  and 
by  what  means  nature 
may  be  made  useful  to 
roan.  This  lesson  of  experience  is  the  conquest  of  nature. 

36 


W.  T.  Harris. 


IViUiam  T.  Harris.  37 

The  second  and  more  important  lesson  is,  however, 
derived  from  the  experience  of  human  nature — the 
manners  and  customs  of  men,  the  motives 
which  govern  human  action  and  especially  exj«rience 
the  evolution  or  development  of  human  insti- 
tutions, that  is  to  say,  the  combinations  of  individuals 
into  social  wholes.  By  these  combinations  the  individual 
man  is  enabled  to  exist  in  two  forms.  First,  there  is  his 
personal  might,  and  second,  there  is  the  reinforcement 
which  comes  to  him  as  an  individual  through  the  social 
unit,  the  family,  civil  society,  the  State,  the  Church. 
The  individuals  endow  the  social  unit  in  which  they  live 
with  their  own  strength,  and  hence  the  strength  of  the 
whole  institution  is  far  greater  than  that  of  any  indi- 
vidual. In  fact,  the  combined  strength  is  greater  than 
the  aggregate  of  the  individual  strengths  which  compose 
it.  Ten  Robinson  Crusoes  acting  in  conjunction  are 
equal  not  only  to  ten  individual  Crusoes,  but  to  ten 
times  ten. 

It  follows  from  this  view  of  education  (as  a  means 
of  fitting  man,  the  individual,  to  avail  himself  of  the 
knowledge  of  his  species  or  race  obtained 
through  two  kinds  of  experience)  that  I  must  ^heresy?' 
set  a  very  high  value  on  the  accumulated  wis- 
dom of  the  race.  I  must  think  that  the  man  as  an  un- 
educated individual  is  infinitely  below  man  as  an 
educated  individual.  I  must  think,  too,  that  a  system 
which  proposes  to  let  the  individual  work  out  his  edu- 
cation entirely  by  himself — Kasper  Hauser  style — is  the 
greatest  possible  mistake.  Rousseau's  doctrine  of  a 
return  to  nature  must  also  seem  to  me  the  greatest 
heresy  in  educational  doctrine.  But  with  this  educa- 
tional principle,  so  far  as  stated  above,  one  does  not 
have  any  protection  against  a  wrong  tendency  in  method 
which  may  be  justified  on  the  ground  that  the  contribu- 


38  Educational  Creeds. 

tion  of  the  social  whole  is  the  essential  thing,  and  the 
contribution  of  the  individual  the  unessential  thing. 

Keeping  in  view  that  essential  thing, /educational 
method  is  prone  to  neglect  too  much  the  individual 
peculiarities,  and  above  all  to  undervalue  the 
exclusively  self-activity  of  the  pupil  in  gaining  knowl- 
edge. )  It  does  not  consult  the  likes  and  dis- 
likes of  the  pupil,  and  cares  little  or  nothing  for  his 
interest  in  his  studies.  It  is  content  if  it  secures  the 
substantial  thing,  namely,  that  the  individual  should 
learn  the  wisdom  of  the  race  and  the  lesson  of  sub- 
ordinating himself  to  the  manners  and  customs  of  his 
fellow  men.  It  is  content  if  it  makes  him  obedient. 
He  must  obey  not  only  the  laws  of  the  State  but  the 
conventional  rules  of  etiquette.  Above  all  he  must 
obey  his  parents,  his  teacher,  and  his  elders.  This  re- 
quirement of  obedience  carried  out  to  the  extent  de- 
manded in  China,  and  to  a  less  degree  in  monarchical 
countries  of  Europe  and  in  this  country  until  very 
recently,  is  based  on  a  too  exclusive  contemplation  of 
the  social  ideal  as  the  chief  object  of  education,  and  I 
hasten  to  add  the  statements  needed  to  correct  its  in- 
completeness. 

DEVELOPMEJiTT   ACCORDING   TO   SELF-ACTIVITY. 

All  education  is  based  on  the  principle  of   self-ac- 
tivity.    The  individual  to  be  educated  has  the   poten- 
tiality of  perfection  in  various  degrees  and 
■^thTseS."'  canattain  this  by  his  self-activity.   A  material 
body  or  a  mechanical  aggregate  of  any  kind 
can  be  modeled  or  formed  or  modified  externally  into 
some  desirable  shape.    But  this  external  moulding  is  not 
education.     Education  implies  as  an  essential  condition 
the  activity  of  a  self.     It  follows  from  this  that  T^hile' 


William  T.  Harris.  39 

the  end  of  education  must  be  the  elevation  of  the  in- 
dividual into  the  species,  that  this  can  only  happen 
through  the  self-activity  of  the  individual. 

I  saw  this  principle  clearly  before  I  saw  the  entire 
principle  to  which  it  is  a  part,  namely,  the  relation  of 
the  individual    to  society.      I   can   readily 
sympathize  with  scores  of  my  friends  and  J^diociety. 
companions  in  education  who  see  this  prin- 
ciple  of  self-activity  but  have  not  yet  arrived  at  the 
insight  into  that  function  of  self-activity  of  the  in- 
dividual which  is  to  so  act  that  it  may  reinforce  itself 
by  the  self  activity  of  institutions  or  social  wholes. 

Following  this  necessity  of  the  individual  I  believe 

that  the  greatest  care  should  be  taken  not  to       .      * 

arrest   the  develo))ment   according  to   self-         ot 

11  1       •     7         •    .        dcTelopment. 

activity.      Any  harsh,  mechanical   training 

will  tend  to  arrest  development  of  the  child. 

There  is  for  human  beings  as  contrasted  with  lower 
animals  a  long  period  of  helpless  infancy.  This  long 
period  is  required  for  the  development  of  man's  adapta- 
tions to  the  spiritual  environment  implied  in  the  habits, 
modes  of  behavior,  and  the  arts  of  the  social  com- 
munity into  which  man  is  born.  Professor  John  Fiske 
has  shown  the  importance  of  this  fact  to  the  theory  of 
evolution  as  applied  to  man.  It  is  the  most  important 
contribution  which  that  doctrine  has  made  to  pedagogy. 
If  the  child  is  at  any  epoch  of  his  long  period  of  help- 
lessness inured  to  any  habit  or  fixed  form  of  activity 
belonging  to  a  lower  stage  of  development  the  tendency 
will  be  to  arrest  growth  at  that  standpoint  and  to  make 
it  difficult  or  next  to  impossible  to  continue  the  growth 
of  the  child  into  higher  and  more  civilized  forms  of 
soul-activity.  Any  overcultivation  of  sense-perception 
in  tender  years,  any  severe  and  long-continued  stress 
upon  the  exercises  of  the  memory,  will  prevent  the  rise 


40  Educational  Creeds. 

of  the  soul  into  spiritual  insight.  I  therefore  distrust 
many  of  the  devices  invented  by  teachers  of  great  will- 
power to  secure  thoroughness  in  the  learning  of  the 
studies  in  the  primary  school. 


THREE   STAGES  OF  THINKING. 

My  doctrine  of  rational  psychology  holds  that  there 
are  three  stages  in  the  development  of  the  think- 
sense-  ^"S  power.  The  first  stage  is  that  of  sense- 
perception,  perception,  and  its  form  of  thinking  conceives 
all  objects  as  having  independent  being  and  as  existing 
apart  from  all  relation  to  other  objects.  It  would  set 
up  an  atomic  theory  of  the  universe  if  it  were  questioned 
closely. 

The   second   stage   of  knowing  is  that   which   sees 

everything  as  depending  upon  the  environment.    Every- 

Seeing      thing  is  relative  and  cannot  exist  apart  from 

relations,  -^g  relations  to  other  things.  The  theory  of 
the  universe  from  this  stage  of  thinking  is  pantheistic. 
There  is  one  absolute  unity  of  all  things.  It  alone  is 
independent  and  all  the  others  are  dependent.  They 
are  phenomenal  and  it  is  the  absolute.  Pantheism  con- 
ceives the  universe  as  one  vast  sea  of  being  in  which  the 
particular  waves  lose  their  individuality  after  a  brief 
manifestation. 

The  third  stage  of  thinking  arrives  at  the  insight  that 

true  being  is  self-active  or  self-determined.     It  is  there- 

jjie        fore   self-conscious  being  and   is  above  in- 

absoiute.  tellect  and  will.  Inasmuch  as  intellect  is  in 
its  essential  nature  altrnistic,  or  tliat  which  makes  itself 
its  own  object  and  gives  objective  being  to  otliers,  it 
follows  that  its  views  of  the  world  sees  the  necessity  of 
presupposing  a   divine  reason   as   the   absolute    which 


William  T.  Harris.  41 

creates  in  order  that  it  may  share  its  being  with  others 
in  its  own  image. 

According  to  my  thinking,  the  most  important  end  of 
education  is  to  take  the  j)upil  safely  through  the  world- 
theories    of    the    first   and    second    stages, 
namely,  sense-perception  and  the  relativity  ^^^|w!*^ 
doctrine  of  pantheism,  up  to  the  insight  into 
the   personal   nature  of   the    absolute.     All   parts  and 
pieces   of   school    education   and   all   other   education 
should  have  in  view  this  development  of  the  intellect. 


INDIVIDUAL  RESPONSIBILITY  AND  THE  MORAL  WILL. 

Corresponding  to  this  elevation  of  the  intellect  up 
to  the  point  where  it  sees  true  being  to  be  self-active 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  moral  will  which  Moral 
should  be  reached  by  the  method  of  discipline  ''^^• 
adopted  by  the  school.  Intellectual  insight  is  the  high- 
est result  of  the  theoretical  training,  and  a  moral  will  is 
tlie  highest  result  of  the  practical  side  of  school  educa- 
tion. The  kindergarten  work  treats  with  the  requisite 
degree  of  tenderness  the  early  manifestations  of  will- 
power in  the  child.  It  gradually  develops  in  his  mind 
the  necessity  of  self-restraint  for  the  sake  of  co-opera- 
tion with  his  fellow  pupils.  He  must  inhibit  or  hold 
back  his  tendency  to  act  without  respect  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  work  of  the  kindergarten.  There  develops 
in  the  child  the  power  of  self-control  for  rational  ends. 

The  discipline  of  the  elementary  school  builds  up  in 
a  very   powerful   manner   the   sense  of  individual  re- 
sponsibility.    Each   child    feels   that   he  is 
responsible  not  only  for  what  he  does  inten-  responsibu- 
tionally,  but  what  he  neglects  to  do  in  the 
way  of   performing   school   duties.     This  is    the   most 


42  Educational  Creeds. 

powerful  influence  which  a  well-disciplined  school 
exercises  towards  the  production  of  character.  The 
child  subdues  his  likes  and  dislikes,  adopts  habits  of 
regularity,  punctuality,  silence,  and  industry.  His  in- 
dustry takes  the  form  of  two  kinds  of  attention:  first, 
the  critical  attention  to  the  work  of  the  class  and  the 
criticisms  of  the  teacher,  and  second,  to  the  mastery 
of  his  own  set  task  by  his  unaided  labor. 

Every  self-active  being  is  a  will  in  so  far  as  it  lifts 
itself  out  of  the  chain  of  causation,  in  which  it  finds 

itself  in  nature,  and  acts  in  such  a  way  as  to 
of         modify  this  chain   of  action  in  accordance 

with  its  inclination  or  ideas.  It  can  originate 
modifications  in  the  chain  of  causality  and  thus  be- 
come responsible  for  the  series  of  effects  which  flow 
from  its  action.  It  becomes  a  moral  will  when  it  is 
conscious  of  this  power  of  origination;  it  knows  itself 
responsible.  Immersed  in  mere  feeling,  in  mere  likes 
and  dislikes,  interests  and  antipathies,  it  is  not  a  moral 
will,  although  it  originates  new  causal  series  in  the 
world.  But  it  becomes  conscious  of  its  responsibilities 
when  it  observes  in  itself  the  power  to  inhibit  or  hold 
back  the  chain  of  causality  in  which  it  finds  itself  and 
resist  its  inclinations  and  the  force  of  its  habits.  It  can 
absolutely  refuse  to  act,  and  this  demonstrates  its  abso- 
lute freedom.  Freedom  does  not  mean  the  power  to 
do  everything,  for  that  is  omnipotence.  It  means  the 
power  to  refuse  to  transmit  external  impulses  and  forces 
by  lending  them  its  efforts. 


ADJUSTMENT   OF   INDIVIDUAL   TO    SOCIETY. 

School   education   and    all    education   is   a  delicate 
matter  of  adjustment,  inasmuch  as   it  deals  with  two 


IVilliam  T.  Harris.  43 

factors,  spontaneity  and  prescription.    The  latter  tends 
to  determine  the  whole  individual  by  the  re- 
quirements of  the  social  whole.     The  former        and 
tends  to  make  the  child  a  bundle  of  caprice 
and  arbitrariness  by  giving  full  course  to  his  spontaneity 
or  self-activity.     The  concrete  rule  of  pedagogy  is  to 
keep  in  view  both  sides,  and  to  encourage  the  child  to 
self-activity  only  "in  so  far"  as  the  same  is  rational, 
that  is  to  say,  in  so  far  as  his  self-activity  enables  him  to 
reinforce   himself   with   the   self-activity  of  the  social 
whole,  or,  to  put  it  in  another  way,  it  enforces  pre- 
scription upon  the  child  only  in  so  far  as  the  same  is 
healthful  for  tlie  development  of  his  self-activity. 

Every  pedagogical  method  must  therefore  be  looked 
at  from  two  points  of  view:  first,  its  capacity  to  secure 
the  development  of  rationality  or  of  the  true 
adjustment  of  the  individual  to  the  social  ^*metSod.*^ 
whole,  and  secondly,  its  capacity  to  strengthen 
the  individuality  of  the  pupil  and  avoid  the  danger  of 
obliterating  the  personality  of  the   child  by  securing 
blind    obedience  in   place  of   intelligent    co-operation, 
and  by  mechanical    memorizing  in   place   of   rational 
insight. 

I  believe  that  the  school  does  progress  and  will  pro- 
gress in  this  matter  of  adjusting  these  two  sides.  But 
I  find  and  expect  to  find  constantly  on  the  road  to  prog- 
ress new  theories  offered  which  are  more  or  less  neg- 
lectful of  the  delicate  adjustment  between  these  two 
factors  of  education. 


PROGRESS   TOWARDS    FREEDOM. 

I  believe  that  the  school  as  it  is  and  as  it  has  been 
is  and  has  been  a  great  instrumentality  to  lift  all 
classes  of  people  into  a  participation  in  civilized  life. 


44  Edticational  Creeds. 

I  believe  that  the  world  progresses  and  has  progressed 
towards  freedom.  In  this  respect  I  think 
of  that  every  form  of  civilization  that  has  pre- 
*  vailed  in  the  world  has  some  important  light 
to  throw  upon  the  questions  of  pedagogy.  On  the  whole 
our  new  and  newest  education  is  better  able  to  help 
children  whose  souls  are  imprisoned  in  their  bodies  and 
who  are  dull  and  stupid.  The  education  of  to-day 
knows  better  than  the  education  of  yesterday  how  to 
arouse  such  children  by  the  application  of  devices  that 
stimulate  their  interests  and  self-activity.  It  knows, 
too,  better  how  to  hold  back  the  child  who  is  filled  with 
selfishness  and  teach  him  to  subordinate  his  self-seeking 
to  the  interest  of  the  social  whole.  More  than  the  child 
of  Europe,  Asia,  or  Africa,  the  American  child  is  pre- 
cocious in  will-power.  In  improperly  conducted  kin- 
dergartens one  sees  very  often  two  or  three  bright 
children  monopolize  the  attention  not  only  of  all  the 
other  small  children  but  also  of  the  teacher.  Such  child 
gardens  remind  us  of  kitchen  gardens  choked  with 
weeds. 

THE    FIELD    OF    CHILD-STUDY. 

Finally,  a  word  in  my  creed  regarding  child-study. 
I   have   hoped   and    still    hope  from   the   child-study 

movement  a  thorough  investigation  of  the 
of         question  of  arrested  development.     In  view 

of  what  I  have  said  above  regarding  the  long 
period  of  helpless  infancy  and  of  the  importance  of 
keeping  the  child  open  to  educative  influences  as  long 
as  possible,  it  becomes  necessary  to  ascertain  the  effect 
of  every  sort  of  training  or  method  of  instruction  upon 
the  further  growth  of  the  child.  For  instance,  do 
methods  of  teaching  arithmetic  by  the  use  of  blocks,  ob- 
jects, and  other  illustrative  material  advance  the  child 


IVilliam  T.  Harris.  45 

or  retard  him  in  his  ability  to  master  the  higher  branches 
of  mathematics  ?  What  effect  upon  the  pupil's  ability  to 
understand  motives  and  actions  in  history  does  great 
thoroughness  in  arithmetical  instruction  have;  for  in- 
stance, does  it  make  any  difference  whether  there  is 
only  one  lesson  in  arithmetic  a  day  or  one  each  in  writ- 
ten arithmetic  and  in  mental  arithmetic  ?  Does  a  care- 
ful training  in  discriminating  fine  shades  of  color  and 
in  naming  them,  continued  for  twenty  weeks  to  half  a 
year  in  the  primary  school,  permanently  set  the  mind  of 
the  pupil  towards  the  mischievous  habit  of  observing 
tints  of  color  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  the  mind 
oblivious  of  differences  in  form  or  shape  and  especially 
inattentive  to  relations  which  arise  from  the  interaction 
of  one  object  upon  another  ?  Questions  of  this  kind  are 
endless  in  number,  and  they  relate  directly  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  course  of  study  and  the  school  programme. 
They  cannot  be  settled  by  rational  or  a  priori  pyschology, 
but  only  by  careful  experimental  study.  In  the  settle- 
ment of  these  questions  one  would  expect  great  assist- 
ance from  the  laboratories  of  physiological  psychology. 

Notwithstanding  my  firm  faith  in  the  efficiency  of  the 
school  to  help  the  child  enter  upon  the  fruits  of  civil- 
ization, I  am  possessed  with  the  belief  that  to 
the  school  is  due  very  much  arrested  develop-  cMWrtudjr. 
ment.     Not  very  much  success  in  tliis  line 
can  be  expected,  however,  from  those  enthusiasts  in  child- 
study  who  do  not  as  yet  know  the  alphabet  of  rational 
psychology.     Those  who  cannot  discriminate  the  three 
kinds  of  thinking  are  not  likely  to  recognize  them  in 
their  study  of  children.     Those  who  have  no  idea  of 
arrested  development  will  not  be  likely  to   undertake 
the  careful  and  delicate  observations  which  explain  why 
certain  children  stop  growing  at  various  points  in  dif- 
ferent studies  and  require  patient  and  persevering  effort 


46 


Educational  Creeds. 


oil  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  help  them  over  their  men- 
tal difficulties.  The  neglected  child  who  lives  the  life 
of  a  street  arab  has  become  cunning  and  self-hel])ful, 
but  at  the  expense  of  growth  in  intellect  and  morals. 
Child-study  should  take  up  his  case  and  make  a  thor- 
ough inventory  of  his  capacities  and  limitations  and 
learn  the  processes  by  which  these  have  developed.  Child- 
study  in  this  way  will  furnish  us  more  valuable  informa- 
tion for  the  conduct  of  our  schools  than  any  other  fields 
of  investigation  have  yet  done. 


The  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C. 


THE  SHORTER   PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  B.  A,  Hinsdale, 

Professor  of  Pedagogy,  University  of  Michigan. 

There  is  a  Shorter  Catechism.  Why  not  a  Sliortor 
Creed?  And  why  not  write  it  according  to  the  ancient 
fashion,  in  tripartite  form  ? 

I.      THE    CHILD    OR   THE    MIND. 

Education  begins  with  the  beiiig  to  be  educated,  that 

is,  the   child,  and  it  culminates  in  his  higher  nature, 

that  is,  his  mind.     The  child's  mind  is  ac-     „ 

,  Meaning: 

tive,  self-active  we  say,  and  through  its  own         of 

,.    .,  ,         ,  •'  ,  ,        education, 

activity  makes  increase,  grows,  enlarges,  de- 
velops. Furthermore,  this  increase,  enlargement,  or 
development  is  education.  The  common  conception  of 
education  makes  it  consist  of  attainments  or  knowledge, 
but  the  proper  conception  makes  it  mental  growth  or 
power  of  mind.  The  dynamical  view  is  far  superior  to 
the  static  view. 

The  mind  is  not  equally  energetic  or  active  at  all 
times;  for  example,  in  sleep  it  is  less  active  than  when 
awake,  and  it  is  commonly  thought,  perhaps, 
at  such  times  to  be  altogether  at  rest.     Be-    a^vity. 
sides,  there   are   such  things  as  mental  la- 
tency, subconsciousness,  and  unconscious  cerebration,  the 
nature  of  which,  and  the  relations  of  which  to  mentnl 

47 


48 


Educational  Creeds. 


activity  and  growth,  are  not  very  fully  understood  as 
yet.  But  there  is  no  denying  the  fact  that  the  activity 
of  the  mind  is  the  cardinal  fact  to  be  considered  in 
mental  growth.  Physical  rest,  and  mental  rest  (which 
really  means  another  form  of  activity,  or  a  less  intense 
activity),  limits  mental  growth  in  important  ways,  but 
the  limit  is  rather  a  condition  than  a  cause.  We  may 
say,  then,  that  the  mind  grows  only  as  it  is  active. 


B.    A.    HiNSDAl-E. 

Mental  activity,  therefore,  is  the  factor  to  be  first 
considered  in  all  education  that  rises  above  the  material 
nature  of  man.     It  comprehends  the  intellect,  the  feel- 


B.  A.  Hinsdale.  49 

ings,  and  the  will.  It  encompasses  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  education.  Subject  to  the  law  of  inherit- 
aTice,  a  man's  soul  makes  his  character  through  its  own 
activity. 

II.      EDUCATION'-STUFF,    OR    STUDIES. 

When  we  say  that  the  child's  mind  is  self-active  we 
mean  that  it  contains  the  principle  of  activity  within 
itself.  In  this  respect  it  is  unlike  a  block  of  points 
stone  or  wood,  which  is  itself  dead  and  pow-  of  contact. 
erless.  But  we  do  not  mean  that  the  child's  mind,  if 
left  to  itself,  will  act  and  grow.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
does  not  act,  and  cannot  act,  until  something  capable  of 
arousing  its  activity  is  brouglit  into  contact  with  it.  At 
first,  this  something  consists  of  objects  external  to  the 
mind  itself;  the  stimulus  is  an  outer  stimulus.  Objects 
capable  of  exciting  the  mind  to  act  are  as  necessary  to 
mental  activity  as  the  self-active  mind  itself.  The  mind 
cannot  act  in  vacuo.  Accordingly,  the  growth  of  the  mind, 
or  its  education,  in  the  first  stage  depends  absolutely 
upon  the  establishment  of  jioints  of  contact  between  the 
mind  and  its  environment.  With  such  points  of  con- 
tact mental  growth  begins.  From  such  points  of  con- 
tact all  mental  growth  must  proceed.  To  change  the 
form  of  expression,  objects  that  may  be  known  are  as 
necessary  to  knowledge  as  a  knowing  mind.  Knowledge 
is  the  jiroduct  when  these  two  factors  are  brought  into 
proper  contact  or  relation. 

All  intellectual  education  must  be  developed  from  the 
primal  contacts  of  the  mind  with  the  surrounding  world. 
At  first,  these  contacts  are  between  the  mind 
and  the  natural  world,  and  they  constitute 
the  beginning  points  of  all  scientific  knowledge.  Next, 
and  it  is  not  long  after,  contacts  are  established  with  the 
human  world,  the  world  of  mankind,  and  these  become 


50  Educational  Creeds. 

centers  of  historical,  political,  social,  and  moral  knowl- 
edge. At  a  later  day,  the  mind  begins  to  recognize  it- 
self, or  it  establishes  points  of  contact  between  itself  and 
itself,  and  these  contacts  are  the  beginnings  of  philosoph- 
ical knowledge.  But  while  knowledge,  strictly  speaking, 
is  the  result  flowing  from  the  establishment  of  contacts 
between  the  mind  and  objects  of  knowledge,  men  have 
nevertheless  long  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding  these 
objects,  at  least  in  many  of  the  forms  that  they  assume, 
as  knowledge  itself. 

III.      THE   TEACHER. 

To  teach  is  to  bring  the  mind  of  the  child  and  educa- 
tion-stuff into  due  relation.     It  is  an  act  of  mediation 

„    ,    .        between  the  two  terms  that  are  essential  to 
Beginning's 

of         mental  activity  and  to  growth  of  mind.     At 
education.  .  . 

first,   the   child   has,  strictly   speaking,   no 

teacher;  his  mind  fixes  itself  upon  the  objects  about  it. 
What  these  objects  are,  depends  upon  his  environment. 
But  whatever  they  are,  they  are  the  beginnings  or 
sources  of  mental  activity  and  of  education. 

Nature,  the  world,  life,  is  the  child's  first  teacher. 
The  mother  or  the  nurse  is  a  teacher  only  in  so  far  as 
she  is  an  object  of  observation  and  study,  and  as  she 
Teachers  of  contributes  to  or  controls  the  child's  envi- 
the  child,  ronment.  As  selecting  and  arranging  the 
objects  that  make  up,  or  help  lo  make  up,  the  environ- 
ment, the  mother  or  nurse  influences  the  child's  men- 
tal activity  and  development;  but  she  acts,  and  can  act, 
at  this  stage  of  progress,  only  through  environment. 
This  is  no  doubt  something,  a  good  deal,  in  fact,  but  it 
is  not  what  is  commonly  called  teaching.  The  mother 
or  nurse  does  not  think  that  she  is  teaching  ;  she  does 
the  work  unconsciously  wliile  attending  to  something 


B.  A.  Hinsdale.  51 

else,  as  the  child's  comfort  or  pleasure.     Still  it  is  a 
type  of  all  teaching. 

Mentiil  activity  is  observation,  memory,  comparison, 
analysis,  imagination,  thought.     Moreover,  these  acts  are 
all  personal  ;  no  one  can  do  them  for  another.     Every 
person  must  image  his  own  ideas,  form  his 
own   judgments,   think   his   own   thoughts,      acts  are 
All  that  one  person  can  do  for  another  in     ^"®° 
respect  to  these  activities  is  incidental  and  secondary. 
A  cannot  form  an  idea  for  B,  but  he  may  put  before 
him  an  object  that  will  excite  its  formation.     A  cannotV 
form  an  opinion,  make  up  a  judgment,  or  reach  a  \ 
conclusion  for  B,  but  he  may  bring  to  his  attention    ) 
matter  that  will  lead   to  such   result.     The   teacher's   / 
function  as  an  instructor  is  exhausted,  therefore,  with  / 
the  selection  and  presentation  of  appropriate  education 
material.     As  already  said,  the  process  is  really  typified 
by  the  partial  control  which  the  mother  or  nurse  has 
over  the  infant's  surroundings.     Here,  however,  she  is 
conscious  in  doing  her  work. 

Accordingly,    the    teacher   is    a    mediator,  standing 

between  the  pupil,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  world  of 

knowledge,  on  the  other.     It  may  be  asked,     „ 

.  Fower  of 

Has  not  the  teacher  power  over  the  child  as        the 

well  as  over  education  material  ?    Undoubt- 
edly.    The  teacher  may  lead  the  pupil  to  knowledge  as 
well  as  bring  knowledge  to  the  pupil;  but  this  in  no- 
wise affects  the  case,  since  the  material,  in  any  event, 
must  be  chosen  and  arranged. 

The  whole  pedagogical  field  is  therefore  divisible  into 
three  parts,  viz. :  the  Child,  Studies,  and  the  Teacher. 


//■^A^ 


Akr  Arbor. 


THE   PEDAGOGICAL   CREED 

of  Earl  Barnes, 

Professor  of  Education  in  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University,  Cal. 

I  BELIEVE  that  this  is  a  sane,  well-ordered  universe, 

and  that  the  natural  tendencies  in  it  are  towards  higher 

Upward     forms.     I  believe  that  the  problem  of  the 

tendencies,  educator  is  to  find  these  large  unward-moving 

tendencies  in  civilization,  and  to  do  all  in  his  power  to 

foster  and  encourage  them. 


Prof.  Eabl  Barnes. 


52 


Earl  Barnes.  53 

I  believe  these  laws   can  be  discovered   through   a 
study  of  the  history  of  ideas  and  ideals,  and  through  a 
direct  study  of  the  natural  history  of  human     Natural 
beings  from  childhood  to  old  age.     I  believe    ^jf^^^"' 
the  great  problem  of  this  immediate  genera-      beings, 
tion  is  to  work  out  the  natural  history  of  human  beings 
as  a  basis  for  educational  activity,  and  I  believe  that 
when  this  is  fairly  accomplished  we  shall  find  that  what 
we  have  is  a  philosophy  of  life  and  life's  possibilities, 
not  materially  different  from  philosophies  held  in  the 
past,  but  perfected  in  many  details. 


XjCXxJLy  (^^.AA/OL^ 


"LsulSD  Stanford,  Jb.,  Univebsitt. 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  Col.  Fkakcis  W.  Parkee, 

Prin.  Chicago  Normal  School. 

I  AM  obliged  to  give  my  pedagogical  creed  in  a  very 
general  way. 

First,  I  have  unbounded  faith  in  the  development  of 
the  human  race.  I  believe  that  tlie  path  and  goal  of 
Commnnity  wiankind  is  education.  The  end  and  aim  of 
^*-  education  is  community  life.  The  child 
should  be  a  citizen  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the 
moment  he  enters  the  schoolroom  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
he  should  become  through  teaching  and  training  an 
efficient  citizen  of  his  little  community. 

I  believe  that  the  past  has  given  us  a  vast  inherit- 
ance of  good  that  we  should  use  for  the  future.     I  also 
believe  that,  comparatively  speaking,  we  have 
^isiWUtiM.  J"^^  begun  to  study  the  science  of  education 
and  apply  art:  that  most  things  done  in  the 
past  and  that  which  we  are  now  doing  are  comparatively 
crude.     I  believe  that  the  only  consistency  in  this  world 
worthy  the  name  is  constant  change  in  the  direction  of 
a  better  knowledge  of  humanity  and  of  the  means  by 
wliicli  humanity  rises  to  higher  levels.     I  believe  that 
the  art  of  teaching  is  the  art  of  all  arts,  it  surpasses 
and  comprehends  all  other  arts,  and  that  the  march  of 
progress  is  upon  tlie  line  of  the  realization  of  infinite 
possibilities  for  the  good  and  growth  of  mankind. 

54 


Francis  W.  Parker.  55 

I  believe  in  personal  method  in  this  sense  that  each 
teacher  must  discover  methods  by  the  study  of  psychol- 
ogy and  all  that  pertains  to  the  development 
of  the  human  being  ;  that  he  must  apply    metS^i? 
that  which  he  thinks  is  for  the  best  good  of 
his  pupils,  and  by  supplying  the  best  he  will  learn 
something  better.    The  future  of  education  means  the 


warn         I 


Coii.  Parker  in  his  Stttdt. 

closest  study  and  diagnosis  of  each  personality  and  the  ^ 
application  of  means  to  develop  that  personality  into 
the  highest   stature  of    manhood   or  womanhood.      I 
believe  that  no  teacher,  no  one,  can  study  the  science 


56  Educational  Creeds. 

and  art  of  education  and  remain  in  the  same  place, 
applying  the  same  methods,  more  than  one  day  at  a 
time.  I  believe  that  what  we  need  in  this  country 
to-day  is  a  close,  careful,  unprejudiced,  thorough  study 
of  education  as  a  science.  I  believe  that  dogmatism 
should  have  an  end  and  in  its  place  should  come  scien- 
tific methods  of  study  and  a  tentative  mode  of  applica- 
tion. 

I  began  to  keep  school  forty-two  years  ago.  I  began 
to  learn  how  to  teach  some  twenty-five  years  ago. 
Moral  And,  to-day,  I  feel  deeply  that  I  have  not 
ends.  yg^  learned  the  fundamental  principles  of 
education.  I  believe  in  universal  salvation  on  earth 
through  education.  I  believe  that  man  is  the  demand, 
God  the  supply,  and  the  teacher  the  mediator,  and 
when  the  day  comes  that  this  mediation  shall  approach 
perfection  the  human  race  will  enter  into  new  life.  I 
believe  that  no  teaching  is  worthy  the  name  if  it  does 
not  have  a  moral  and  ethical  end.  There  are  only  two 
things  to  study,  man  and  nature  ;  there  is  only  one 
thing  to  study,  and  that  is  the  Creator  of  man  and 
nature,  God.  The  study  of  God's  truth  and  the  appli- 
cation of  His  truth  are  the  highest  glory  of  man. 
Herein  lies  the  path  and  the  goal  of  education. 

Chicago  Normal  School. 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  James  L.  Hughes, 

Inspector  of  Public  Schools,  Toronto,  Ontario. 

I  believe: 

That  God  is  the  Creator,  the  source  of  life,  the  es- 
sence of  life  which  gives  it  the  power  of  evolution  to 
higher  life,  and  the  center  of  universal  unity. 

That  God  and  the  child  are  the  essential    .^^^God. 
elements  in  all  true  educational  thought  and 
investigation. 

That  man's  highest  destiny  is  unity  or  inner  connec- 
tion with  God. 

That  the  perfect  community  of  humanity  is  the  only 
sure  foundation  for  the  complete  unity  of  humanity 
with  God. 

That  the  fullest  development  of  the  individual  is  the 
true  basis  for  the  perfect  community  or  interrelation- 
ship of  humanity.   Race-inclusive  individuals     ^     , 
,  .,.,,,  .  Develop- 

form  an  individual-respecting  race.  ment  of  indi- 

That  the  highest  function  of  education  is 
to  aid  in  the  complete  development  of  individuality  as 
the  true  basis  for  the  community  of  humanity  and  the 
unity  of  humanity  with  God. 

That  the  selfhood  of  the  child  is  the  element  of  di- 
vinity in  it. 

57 


Educational  Creeds. 


I  That  no  one  can  be  a  true  teacher  until  his  reverence 
/  for  the  sacredness  of  individuality  or  selfhood  is  strong 
J  enough  to  prevent  his  interference  with  its  perfect  de- 
V   velopment. 

That  self-activity — the   activity  of  selfhood — is  the 
Self-       only  possible    process  by  which  selfhood  or 
activity,    individuality  can  be  developed. 
That  activity  in  response  to  the  direct  suggestion  or 
command  of  another  is  in  no  sense  true  self-activity. 


James  L.  Hughes. 

That  every  individual  should  be  self-propulsive  and 
i^self-directing;  positive,  not  negative. 

That  children  who,  during  their  school  and  college 
course,  study  aiul  act  only  in  response  to  suggestions  or 


James  L.  Hughes.  59 

instructions  from  their  teachers,  are  being  trained  to 
be  obedient  followers  merely,  who  may  possibly  act  well 
under  direction,  but  whose  only  positiveness  of  character 
results  from  their  incidental  training  outside  the  school 
and  college. 

That  even  responsive  activity  is  infinitely  better  than 
receptive  passivity  on  the  part  of  the  pupil;  but  the 
only  true  developing  activity  is  that  in  which  the  child's 
executive  work  results  from  its  own  originative  and  di- 
rective powers. 

That  self-expression  is  the  only  ideal  of  expression 
worthy  of  recognition  by  educators.  All  lower  ideals  of 
expression,  orally,  or  in  writing,  or  by  draw-  g^^, 
ing,  modeling,  painting,  or  in  any  other  way,  expression, 
are  destructive  of  power.  Expression  should  be  the 
highest  agency  for  developing  power  instead  of  destroy- 
ing it. 

That  the  best  test  of  efficiency  of  an  educational 
method  is  the  amount  of  true  self -activity  it  requires  of 
the  child  in  the  originative,  directive,  and  executive  de- 
partments of  its  power. 

That  there  are  evolutionary  stages,  or  culture  epochs, 
in  the  complete  development  of  individual  power  and 
character.  suges  of 

That  complete  development  in  maturity  is    evolution, 
impossible  unless  there  has  been  complete  appropriate 
development  in  each  of  the  preceding  stages  of  evolution. 

That  development  is  always  arrested  when  work 
adapted  to  a  higher  evolutionary  stage  is  forced  pre- 
maturely on  the  attention  of  a  child.  -\ 

That   it   is  a  grievous  wrong  to  give  a   child  mom 
/knowledge,  or  more  power  to  acquire  knowl-  j 

/  edge,  without  at  the  same  time,  and  as  far  kj^wiedle./ 
I    as  possible  by  the  same  process,  increasing  its  ^ 

^^-power  and  tendency  to  use  knowledge. 


6o  Educational  Creeds. 

That  the  educational  methods  of  the  past  have  devel- 
oped the  sensor  at  the  expense  of  the  motor  system, 
Motor      ^^d  ^hat  therefore  men  have  become  more 

training:,  receptive  than  executive.  Educational 
methods  should  develop  the  motor  system  and  establish 
the  necessary  reactions  between  the  sensor  and  motor 
systems. 

That  the  power  of  problem-discovery  is  the  funda- 
mental intellectual  power.     The  schools  dwarf  pupils 

Problem     by  making  them  problem-solvers  only.     Be- 

discovery.  ^^^.^  c^jiidren  go  to  school  they  are  problem- 
discoverers  as  well  as  problem-solvers. 
-  That  the  natural  wonder-power  and  the  power  of 
problem-discovery  should  increase  throughout  a  man's 
whole  life  if  their  development  were  not  arrested  by 
unwise  methods. 

That  wonder-power  and  problem-discovery  are  the 
essential  elements  in  alert  and  aggressive  interest. 

That  alert,  aggressive,  persistent,  and  self- 
and        active  interest  is  the  true  stimulus  to  pro- 
ductive intellectual  effort. 

That  the  child's  attention  should  be  self-active. 
Teachers  have  no  right  to  control  attention.  They  may 
direct  the  attention  of  the  child,  if  they  are  wise  enough 
to  direct  it  without  dwarfing  it.  Interest  and  attention 
act  spontaneously  if  the  proper  conditions  of  interest  are 
provided. 

That  it  is  always  wrong  to  substitute  the  teacher's  in- 
terests for  the  child's  interests.  The  teacher's  duty  is 
to  provide  conditions  of  interest  adapted  to  the  evolu- 
tionary stage  of  the  child. 

That  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  educators 
is  to  form  by  experience  in  the  child's  mind  in  the  earli- 
est stage  of  its  development  :is  wide  a  range  as  possible 
of  apperceptive  centers  of  feeling  and  thouglit,  in  order 


James  L.  Hughes.  6i 

that  the  feelings  and  thoughts   communicated  during 
the  period   of  conscious   development  may  Apperceptive 
have  vitality  and  meaning.     The  outer  can    and'apper- 
never  be  made  clear  unless  there  is  in  the     ceptJon. 
inner  at  least  a  germ  to  which  the  outer  may  be  related. 

That  new  knowledge  becomes  a  part  of  our  permanent 
mental  equipment  and  an  element  in  character  only 
when  the  corresponding  inner  feeling  and  knowledge 
are  aroused  sufficiently  to  lead  to  a  perfect  union  be- 
tween the  old  and  new.  The  increase  of  knowledge 
should  be  by  amalgamation,  not  by  mere  accumula- 
tion. 

That  the  activity  of  the  selfhood  of  the  child  is  the 
only  certain  way  of  making  the  mind  actively  and 
aggressively  apperceptive;  the  only  way  by  which  in- 
terest can  become  persistently  investigative  and  truly 
stimulative. 

That  the  child's  center  of  interest  is  the  correlating 
true  guide  in  the  correlation  or  concentra-     centers, 
tion  of  studies. 

That  nature  is  the  most  attractive,  the  most  suggest- 
ive, the  most  enlightening,  and  the  most  productive 
correlating  center  for  childhood. 

That  the  history  of  man's  achievements,  the  revela- 
tion of  the  best  ideals  of  civilization,  and  the  co-ordina- 
tion of  the  uplifting  forces  of  society  are  the  central 
rivers  to  which  all  educational  streams  should  be  tribu- 
tary, above  the  primary  school,  including  the  work  in 
colleges  and  universities. 

That  tlie  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  natures 
should  be  trained  as  a  unity,  and  that  the  weakest  de- 
partment of  power  should  receive  most  careful  culture. 

That  informal  training  is  more  productive  than  for- 
mal training  in  all  departments  of  human  power. 

That  children  love  productive  work  better  than  idle- 


62  Educational  Creeds. 

ness.     They  may  not  like  the  work  we  choose  for  them. 

It  would  indicate  deterioration  if  they  did. 

^wk^*^   They  like  more  developing  work  than  ours, 

if  we  have  wisdom  sufficient  to  place  them 

in  conditions  of  proper  independent  choice.    The  power 

to  choose  wisely,  to   decide  correctly,  and  to  control 

one^s  own  powers  in  achieving   good  purposes  is  even 

more   important   than  the   power  of  accomplishment, 

which   becomes   merely   mechanical   if  divorced  from 

originality  of  conception. 

That  it  is  not  necessary  to  destroy  a  child's  power  in 
order  to  change  its  direction.     Most  of  what 
has  been   called   discipline  in  schools    has 
crippled  in  order  to  control. 

That  coercion  is  always  destructive  of  real  character- 
power.  Freedom  is  less  understood  by  teachers  than 
any  other  element  in  child-training.  A  full  compre- 
hension of  the  true  meaning  of  the  "perfect  law  of 
liberty  "  will  make  discipline  a  process  for  the  complete 
evolution  of  the  child's  divinity,  and  not  a  mere  effort 
to  restrict  its  depravity. 

That  while  human  tendency  is  not  always  towards 
The  divine   ^^®  divine,  human  power  is  always  divine, 
element.         That  if  the  child's  power  is  used  in  cre- 
ative self-activity  it  will  lift  the  child    nrogressively 
towards  the  divine. 

That  the  scope  of  education  should  include  the  de- 
velopment of  tlie  brain   and  the  co-ordination  of  the 
rt  niti  "^^"^0"^  system,  as  well  as  the  storing  and 

«v_.  ,*"'■.       the  culture  of  the  mind.     The   proper  nu- 
Oiisflnatlon.       .  .  x-     r 

trition  of  the  brain  and  neurological  sys- 
tem, and  their  highest  development  tlirough  joyousness, 
plays,  physical  exercises,  manual  training,  and  other 
appropriate  opportunities  for  the  free  exercise  of 
originative,  directive,  and   operative  self-activity,   are 


George  P.  Brown.  63 

among  the  most  important  departments  of  educational 
effort. 


/^ 


v^^Cx-^/A^e-j 


Toronto,  Ontario. 


ANNOTATIONS. 
By  George  P.  Brown, 

Editor  of  Public  School  Journal,  Blooming^ton,  III. 

The  educational  creed  of  Superintendent  Hughes,  of 
Toronto,  in  The  School  Journal  of  October  3,  1896,  is 
interesting  to  the  thoughtful  reader,  and  tends  to  lift 
his  thoughts  and  purposes  to  a  higher  plane  than  the 
detailed  work  of  the  schoolroom  is  apt  to  suggest. 
The  effect  of  it  will  be  inspiring  in  the  matter  of  both 
aim  and  method.  A  few  of  the  articles  of  this  creed 
that  treat  more  of  method  than  of  doctrine  will  tend  to 
convey  a  false  impression  to  many  readers  of  what  the 
author  probably  means. 

He  says,  for  instance : 

"The  child's  center  of  interest  is  the  true  guide  in 
the  correlation  or  concentration  of  studies." 

The  statement  is  either  very  vague  or  very  false.  No 
normal  child  has  any  one  center  of  interest.  His  edu- 
cative interests  must  be  supplied  by  the  teacher.  If 
the  child  had  already  a  center  of  interest  that  would 
lead  him  on  to  his  proper  education  there  would  be 
little  for  the  teacher  to  do.  Civilization  has  deter- 
rained  what  the  child  must  learn  and  what  the  results 
of  his  training  must  be.     The  school  is  to  give  him 


64  Educational  Creeds. 

this  knowledge  and  this  training  by  awakening  centers 
of  interest  that  do  not  now  exist.  It  is  not  true,  then, 
that  the  child's  center  of  interest  on  entering  school  is 
to  guide  in  the  correlation  of  his  studies,  but  that  cen- 
ters of  interest  are  to  be  established  and  so  chosen  that 
there  will  be  a  correlation  in  his  knowledge  and  train- 
ing kindred  to  that  which  exists  in  the  social  order  for 
which  he  is  educated. 

Another  article  reads  as  follows : 

"  Nature  is  the  most  attractive,  the  most  suggestive, 
the  most  enlightening,  and  the  most  productive  corre- 
lating center  for  childhood," 

This  is  not  vague,  certainly,  and  as  a  statement  of 
the  author's  educational  faith  is  interesting,  provided 
we  all  put  the  same  meaning  into  the  word  nature. 
But  do  we  ?  Does  the  word  nature  here  include  man 
and  all  of  man's  activities  in  the  world  ?  If  it  does, 
then  everybody  will  accept  this  article.  If  it  does  not, 
then  this  statement  of  Mr.  Hughes'  is  doubly  interest- 
ing in  that  a  man  of  his  experience  and  observation  can 
hold  such  an  article  of  faith. 

Again,  he  says: 

"The  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  natures 
should  be  trained  in  unity,  and  the  weakest  department 
of  power  should  receive  most  careful  culture." 

Accepting  this  as  a  general  statement  of  the  truth  in 
respect  to  the  three  general  departments  named,  the 
question  arises  whether  the  same  law  holds  in  respect 
to  the  subdepartments.  If  tlie  child  is  weak  in  the 
"mathematical  sense,"  for  example,  is  he  to  devote 
more  of  his  time  and  attention  to  mathematics  than  to 
other  studies  ? 

Another  article  of  his  creed  is: 

"That  infornuil  training  is  more  productive  than  for- 
mal training  in  all  departments  of  human  power." 


George  P.  Brown.  65 

We  will  all  accept  this  with  the  proviso  that  formal 
training  shall  be  considered  an  essential  part  of  the 
child's  education.  Power  is  worth  nothing  that  does 
not  realize  itself  in  forms. 

Another  article  of  this  creed  is  truly  startling: 

"Coercion  is  always  destructive  of  character  and 
power." 

It  is  probable  that  the  author  has  a  different  defini- 
uition  of  coei'cion  from  the  one  commonly  held.  An- 
other name  for  coercion,  when  the  word  is  applied  to 
education,  is  authority  and  its  enforcement. 

Most  of  tlie  life  of  the  child  is  directed  by  authority 
until  it  becomes  habit.  He  must  learn  to  do  things 
because  it  is  so  ordered.  It  is  the  work  of  education 
to  transfer  the  coercion  from  a  force  without  to  one 
within.  The  real  self  learns  to  obey  the  ideal  self.  He 
feels  that  he  must.  Character  is  strongest  when  obe- 
dience to  this  authority  is  most  implicit.  The  road  to 
obedience  to  the  authority  of  one's  self  is  through  obe- 
dience to  the  authority  of  parent,  and  teacher,  and 
society.  There  may  be  a  time  in  the  lives  of  some  men 
when  the  real  self  never  feels  the  coercive  influence  of 
the  ideal  self,  for  there  may  be  some  holy  persons. 
The  doctrine  that  coercion  is  "  destructive  of  character 
and  power"  would  be  a  new  education  indeed.  It 
would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  affirm  that  the  Avant  of 
coercion  in  education  is  "  destructive  of  character  and 
power." 

It  is  probable  that  the  author  of  this  creed  believes 
the  substance  of  what  is  here  affirmed.  We  shall  need 
to  know  in  what  special  sense  he  uses  the  word  "  coer- 
cion" before  we  can  understand  this  article. 

The  last  article  of  this  confession  of  faith  which  we 
shall  consider  is  as  follows: 

"  The  fullest  development  of  the  individual  is  the  true 


66  Educational  Creeds. 

basis  for  the  perfect  community  or  interrelationship  of 
humanity/' 

This  statement  appears  to  be  misleading.  It  is  true 
that  without  the  fullest  development  of  the  individual 
there  can  be  no  perfect  community;  but  it  is  also  true 
that  without  the  fullest  development  of  community  life 
there  can  be  no  perfect  individual.  The  human  being 
is  both  social  and  individual  from  earliest  childhood.  It 
is  not  clear  in  what  sense  we  are  to  consider  the  perfect 
individual  as  the  lasis  of  the  perfect  community.  Many 
will  interpret  this  to  mean  that  education  is  to  concern 
itself  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  with  the  development  of  the 
individual  as  an  individual,  who  is  to  be  thus  prepared 
for  entering  community  life.  This  idea  was  held  by  a 
part  of  the  Christian  world  at  one  time,  but  it  is  no 
longer  current. 

Now,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  this  attempt  to 
state  an  educational  creed  illustrates  the  impossibility 
for  one  to  convey  his  thought  in  so  few  words  with  such 
precision  that  all,  or  any  one,  will  understand  it  as  the 
author  does.  Our  purpose  at  this  time  has  been  not  to 
criticise  Superintendent  Hughes'  creed  but  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  reader  to  an  interpretation  that  would 
easily  be  given  to  these  articles,  whicli  intei'pretation 
would  constitute  very  bad  educational  doctrine,  unless 
some  people  have  discovered  some  new  and  fundamental 
truths  that  will  work  a  revolution  in  the  world's  con- 
ception of  the  aim  and  method  of  educating  the  young, 
and  in  civilization  itself.  We  all  believe  in  evolution, 
but  only  a  few  now  believe  in  revolution,  and  they  are 
not  our  leaders. — From  The  Public  School  Journal, 
Bloomington,  111.,  November,  1896. 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  W.  N.  Hailmann, 

Ex-Superintendent  of  Indian  Education,  at  present  superintendent 
of  the  schools  of  Dayton,  O. 

In  matters  of  education,  I  am  afraid  of  creeds. 
Creeds  are  apt  to  array  men  in  hostile  groups,  each 
bent  on  the  maintenance  of  its  creed  instead 
of  toiling  jointly  with  others  in  the  search  of 
for  more  light  and  better  ways.  Creeds  are 
apt  to  hinder  rather  than  to  help  progress,  which  is  the 
very  essence  and  purpose  of  education.  As  authorita- 
tive statements  of  doctrine,  creeds  are  of  little  value  in 
any  art,  and  educational  practice,  as  an  art,  loses  in 
effectiveness  in  the  measure  in  which  it  is  subjected  to 
fixed  doctrine.  As  embodiments  of  more  or  less  con- 
nected statements  of  opinion  on  matters  of  educational 
theory  and  practice,  creeds  are,  if  possible,  even  more 
hurtful.  They  are  apt  to  be  either  too  vague  to  afford 
real  guidance  in  practical  work  or  so  specific  as  to  force 
the  practical  work  into  channels  of  routine,  which  is 
always  hostile  to  development. 

Yet,  earnest  and  thoughtful  workers  in  the  educa- 
tional field  will  of  necessity  reach  certain  more  or  less 
general  views  concerning  the  various  phases 
of  their  work,  certain  more  or  less  distinct         of 
points  of  theory  which  may,  at  least  tempo- 
rarily, assume  the  force  of  convictions  and  of  more  or 
less  serviceable  criteria  of  practice.     In  this  sense,  I 

67 


68 


Educational  Creeds. 


have  an   educational  creed   which  reads   somewhat  as 

follows : 

In  the  first  place,  as  to  child  and  man,  I  see  in  man 

the  only  living  being  capable  of  conscious  individual, 
social,  racial,  and  universal  development — 
the  only  living  being  that  can  gain  an  insight 

into  the  purpose  and  tendency  of  the  evolutionary  pro- 


Man. 


W.  N,  Hailmann. 

cess  and  deliberately  make  of  himself  the  chief  factor 
in  this  process. 

I  see  the  child  and  man,  primarily,  in  his  develop- 
ment under  the  physical  law  of  growth,  finding  impulse 
and  guidance  in  instinct  and  heredity,  liis  life-activities 
absorbent  and  aiming  at  self-establishment  and  self- 


IV.  N.  Hailmann.  69 

preservation.     I  see  him,  in  another  phase  of  develop- 
ment, under  the  psychical  law  of  conscious    physical, 
self-direction,  finding  impulse  and  guidance    ^^^^^l^^' 
in  experience,  in  social  union  and  history,  «t^^cai  law. 
his  life-activities  productive  and  leading  to  the  arts  of 
commerce  and  of  the  industries,  aiming  at  self-expansion. 
I  see  him,  in  the  last  and  highest  phase  of  his  develop- 
ment, placing  himself  freely  and  joyously  under  the 
moral  law  of  love,  finding  impulse  and  guidance  in  in- 
spiration and  insight,  his  life-activities  becoming  truly 
creative,  his  soul  finding  expression  in  art  and  in  deeds 
of  charity  and  devotion. 

The  ultimate  aim  of  education  I  find  in  the  liberation 
of  the  child  and  of  man  from  the  blind  forces  of  instinct 
and  heredity,  giving  him  conscious  control  of  j^g  ^^_ 
his  powers  and  environment,  placing  him  in  ™***  **™' 
possession  of  the  achievements  of  humanity  and  of  the 
ideals  of  humanity,  and  leading  him  to  an  adequate 
appreciation  of  his  responsibility  with  reference  to  the 
progressive  achievement  of  these  ideals. 

The  proximate  aim  of  education,  I  take  it,  is  to  make 
the  child,  within  himself,  strong  and  self-reliant;  in  his 
experience,  sensible  and   thorough;    in  his    jheprox- 
work,  cheerful  and  earnest;  in  his  attitude  imate  aim. 
towards  others,  sympathetic  and  helpful;   in  short,  to 
lead  him  to  individual,  social,  and  universal  efficiency. 

As  to  the  mutual  attitude  of  teacher  and  pupil,  I  see 
the  teacher  successively  as  guardian,  guide,  exemplar, 
leader,  friend,  companion;    and   the    child 
respectively  implicitly  obedient,  intelligently    pupUand 
following,  reverently  and  affectionately  imitat- 
ing, loyally  co-operating,  sympathetically  appreciative,  in 
devoted  co-ordination  with  reference  to  the  common  end. 

As  to  criteria  of  method,  I  hold  that  every  full  educa- 
tional measure  should  stimulate  into  self-active  life  the 


7©  Educational  Creeds. 

entire  being  of  the  child  in  harmony  with  benevolent 
purpose.      Whatever  stimulus  comes  to  the 
^stimuu^*^  child    should    enlist    spontaneous    interest, 
invite  spontaneous  thought,  call  forth  spon- 
taneous purpose,  and  lead  to  spontaneous  achievement. 
The  mental  act,  in  its  entirety,  begins  with  interest  and 
ends  in  achievement;  the  key-note  of  its  harmony  is  its 
purpose;  and  this  should  be  benevolent,  should  tend 
from  individual  to  social,  from  social  to  universal,  ends. 
This   is  equivalent  to  the  demand  that  instruction 
should  rest  upon   the  child's  personal   experience  and 
should  lead,  through  thought,  to  correspond- 
'  and        ing  achievement  or  action.     In  this,  it  will 
ocep  on.  -^^  noticed,  thought  has  a  double  part  to  play. 
On  the  side  of  experience,  thought  is  apperceptive  and 
results  in  knowledge,  or  apperceptive  ideas;  on  the  side 
of  achievement,  thought  is  introceptive  and  results  in 
purpose,  or  introceptive  ideas. 

It  is  equivalent,  also,  to  the  demand  that  instruction 
should,  like  spontaneous  mental  life,  proceed  from  anal- 
ysis to  synthesis.     The  beginning  of  anal- 
anaiysis  to  ysis  is  in  experience,  and  synthesis  finds  its 
syn   esis.    ^^^^^  legitimate  end  in  achievement.      Both 
analysis  and  synthesis  take  place  in  thought,  furnishing 
guidance  and   substance  to  the  will.      The  will  itself 
is  the  center  of  life;  it  appears  as  active  resistance  in 
experience,  as  active  assimilation  in  thought,  as  active 
control  in  achievement. 

I  see  that  with  expanding  thought  the  vital  force  of 
one  isolated  individual  becomes  inadequate  for  the  pur- 
poses of  complete  life,  that  social  union  in 
of         purpose  and  action,  as  well  as  sympathy  in 
experience   and   thought,  become   indispen- 
sable.    This  leads   in   life  to   a  significant  division  of 
interests.     Deliberate  experience,  through  experiment, 


W.  N.  Hailmann.  71 

becomes  the  task  of  one;  the  formulation  of  law  and 
the  construction  of  theory,  the  task  of  another;  inven- 
tion and  leadership  in  purpose,  the  task  of  a  third;  final 
achievement  of  purpose,  the  task  of  a  fourth,  who  may 
have,  and  usually  has,  many  associates.  Yet  all  are 
consciously  united  in  the  same  complete  mental  act. 

The  chief  defect  of  the  schools  of  our  time  is  to  be 
found  in  the  disregard  of  these  social  requirements  in 
the  work  of  instruction,  and  in  the  conse-  social 
quent  neglect  of  the  child's  social  attitude,  demands. 
The  work  of  the  school  should  be  carried  on  with  constant 
reference  to  these  social  requirements,  systematically 
stimulating  the  child  to  interest  himself  in  common 
purpose,  to  find  his  place  with  reference  to  its  achieve- 
ment, and  to  devote  himself  to  its  achievement'  under 
the  undivided  guidance  of  spontaneous  good  will. 

In  thought-development   on  the  side   of  knowledge, 

method  should  begin  with  perception,  which  deals  Avith 

things    and   phenomena ;    it  should    subse- 

°  ^  Perception, 

quently  appeal  to  reason,  which  is  concerned 

with  ideas  and  relations,  and  furnish  insight,  which  re- 
fers to  ideals  and  their  realizations. 

In  the  liberation  of  the  will,  method  should  begin  with 
the  stimulation  of  the  will  in  interest;  should  carefully 
fruard  attention,  in  which  the  will  becomes       „„. 

.  Will. 

conscious  of  its  object,  and  establish  aspira- 
tion, which  is  indeed  the  liberated  will,  controlling  life 
in  the  service  of  elevated  ideals. 

With  reference  to  the  achievement  side  of  develop- 
ment, educational  method  should  begin  with  play  and 
lead  the  child  gradually  to  productive  and  Acweve- 
creative  work.  This  implies  a  gradual  transi-  ™*°*' 
tion  in  the  chief  stimulus  of  the  activity  from  a  sense 
of  mere  pleasure  to  a  sense  of  duty,  and  to  the  joy  that 
attends  its  faithful  performance. 


72  Educational  Creeds. 

In  his  efforts  to  provide   stimulation,  material,  and 

scope  for  the  self-active  development  of  the  child  the 

means  at  the  disposal  of  the  educator  are 

ment  and    environment  and  instruction.     Environment 

s  rue  on.  ^Qjjgjgj^g  ^f  things  and  relations,  of  events  and 
phenonema;  it  appeals  primarily  and  predominantly  to 
analytic  and  inductive  processes;  it  yields  experience 
and  personal  knowledge,  establishes  apperceptive  centers 
for  the  purposes  of  instruction.  Instruction  appeals 
primarily  and  predominantly  to  synthetic  and  deductive 
processes;  it  transmits,  on  the  basis  of  the  pupil's  per- 
sonal experience,  the  experience  of  the  race;  it  imparts 
the  conventionalities  of  institutional  life;  it  guards  and 
directs  purpose,  and  furnishes  encouragement  and  assist- 
ance in  achievement. 

Deliberate  education  should  adjust  environment  with 

reference  to  the  child's  scope  and  power,  and  with   a 

view  of  securing  for  him  complete  life  on  his 

^UvSl*.^  own  plane  of  appreciation  and  achievement. 
It  should  eliminate  excessive,  and  thereby 
weakening,  hindrances  and  temptations,  without,  how- 
ever, excluding  legitimate  hardships  that  stimulate  per- 
sistence and  ample  opportunities  to  choose  the  relatively 
true  and  right.  In  the  stimulation  and  direction  of 
effort,  in  the  resistance  of  temptation  and  overcoming  of 
difficulties,  and  in  the  recognition  of  the  relatively  true 
and  right,  instruction  is  invaluable  and  indispensable. 

Artificial  incentives  that  lie  outside  the   legitimate 

purposes  of  the  mental  acts  involved,  and  punishments 

that  appeal   to  relatively  low  motives  and 

incMftives.     thereby  retard  and  arrest  development,  are 

symptoms  of  ignorance,  weaknesses  of  temper, 

or  lack  of  benevolence  on  the  part  of  the  educator. 

W,  N.  IIailmann. 

Wabuington.  D.C 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  L.  Seeley,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Pedagogy,  State  Normal  School,  Trenton,  N.  J. 

A  CREED  is  a  definite  summary  of  what  one  believes. 
It  is  very  diflficult  to  briefly  state  exactly  what  one  be- 
lieves on  a  great  subject  so  as  to  be  able  to 
justify  the  positions  taken  when  they  are  sub-  ^cre^.*^ 
jected  to  keen  criticism  or  careful  analysis. 
Then,  too,  one's  creed  changes  in  many  particulars  as 
one  grows  older,  gets  wider  views  of  things,  and  becomes 
more  thoughtful.  This  is  true  of  religious  as  well  as  of 
pedagogic  creeds.  I  certainly  have  very  different  peda- 
gogic creeds  from  those  of  my  earlier  years  of  teaching, 
and  these  changes  have  been  wrought  by  experience  and 
by  deeper  insight.  I  do  not  think  that  the  end  is  reached 
yet,  and  therefore  I  do  not  necessarily  stand  committed 
to  these  beliefs  for  all  time  to  come.  I  like  the  noble 
words  of  Col.  Parker  in  the  preface  to  his  "  Talks  on 
Pedagogics"  where  he  says,  "  I  sincerely  trust  that  in 
publishing  this  book  I  shall  not  in  any  way  compromise 
my  attitude  towards  truth  by  clinging  to  any  statement 
here  made  when  it  is  shown  to  be  incorrect,  or  when 
something  better  is  presented." 

1.  I  believe  that  there  is  a  science  of  education,  not 
by  any  means  final,  nor  ever  to  be  final  as  long  as  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  individual  and  racial  devel- 
opment, with  certain  well-established  princi-         of 
pies,  which    must  serve  as   a  guide  to  the 
teacher.     A  knowledge  of  this  science  is  as  essential  to 

73 


74  Educational  Creeds. 

the  teacher  as  a  knowledge  of  medicine  is  essential  to 
the  physician,  a  knowledge  of  jurisprudence  to  the  law- 
yer, or  a  knowledge  of  theology  to  the  minister  of  the 


Dr.  L,  Seeley, 

gospel.  Therefore,  no  person  should  be  allowed  to  teach 
without  professional  knowledge  of  teaching,  any  more 
than  a  person  should  be  allowed  to  practice  medicine,  or 
law,  or  teach  theology  without  the  required  professional 
training.  I  trust  that  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when 
the  various  States  will  require  every  teacher  to  be  profes- 
sionally trained,  giving  due  notice  of  such  requiremeiit, 
80  that  teachers  will  have  time  to  prepare  to  meet  it. 
This  is  the  position  taken  by  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt 
when  at  the  head  of  educational  affairs  in  Prussia  (1808- 


L  Seeley,  Ph.D.  75 

1811).    He  said,  "  All  teachers  must  be  trained,"  and 
Germany  has  long  ago  reached  this  condition. 

2.  I  believe  that  the  child  is  the  center  of  educational 
activity,  that  the  school  is  made  for  the  child  and  not 
the  child  made  for  the  school,  and  therefore 

the  recent  psychological  research  based  upon  "^  center! 
child-study  is  practical,  suggestive,  and 
bound  to  produce  great  results.  It  has  already  made 
some  most  important  discoveries  which  are  revolution- 
izing our  courses  of  study,  changing  our  schedules  of 
daily  work,  introducing  more  sensible  and  humane  dis- 
cipline, and  producing  better  methods  of  instruction. 
The  carrying  out  of  this  idea  to  its  logical  conclusion 
will  make  the  school  a  most  happy  place  for  the  child, 
a  place  where  his  powers  are  brought  into  fullest  play,  a 
place  full  of  inspiration  and  love,  a  place  that  prepares 
him  for  honorable  citizenship  and  awakens  in  him  a 
longing  for  knowledge  of  his  Creator.  All  of  this  the 
school  should  be  and  may  be  if  we  will  remember  that 
the  school  is  for  the  child. 

3.  I  believe  that  the  end  of  education  is  character. 
This  has  become  something  of  a  hackneyed  phrase,  but 
I  believe  that  the  essence  of  this  thought  is 

one  of  the  most  important  that  has  yet  been  *^|^en4.^' 
brought  to  the  conscience  of  the  teacher. 
Carried  to  its  legitimate  conclusion,  it  means  that  a 
higher  purpose  than  that  of  drawing  his  salar}',  of  ad- 
vancing his  pupils  in  the  studies  of  the  school  curricu- 
lum, or  of  preparing  them  for  examination  or  promotion, 
must  possess  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  teacher.  All 
instruction,  all  discipline,  all  contact  of  the  teacher  with 
his  pupils,  will  have  not  simply  an  immediate  purpose  to 
be  fulfilled,  but  will  look  into  the  future  of  the  child  and 
prepare  him  for  the  right  kind  of  manhood. 

It  will  create  in  the  pupil  the  noble  ideals  which  the 


76  Educational  Creeds. 

teacher  himself  possesses  aud  practices.  It  will  look 
forward  to  the  production  of  patriotic,  law-abiding  citi- 
zens, of  useful  members  of  society,  aud  of  men  conse- 
crated to  God  and  humanity.  The  evils  of  society  will 
be  guarded  against,  and  the  teacher  will  seek  to  correct 
them  by  preparing  the  men  and  women  who  are  soon  to 
shape  the  destiny  of  the  land  to  fully  meet  the  respon- 
sibility. 

This  will  make  it  necessary  that  boards  of  educa- 
tion secure  educational  experts  for  their  schools,  furnish 
tbem  with  ample  materials  and  equipment,  give  them  all 
moral  and  oflBcial  support,  and  then,  bidding  them  God- 
speed, leave  them  alone  in  working  out  their  noble  pur- 
pose. It  will  lead  to  greater  permanency  in  teachers' 
positions,  as  school  boards  will  learn  that  these  high 
purposes  can  only  be  fulfilled  when  the  teacher  has  be- 
come thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  child  and  his  en- 
vironment. 

4.  I  believe  that  besides  the  intellectual  and  physical 

side  of  the  child  there  is  the  moral  and  religious  side 

also  which  must  not  be  neglected,  and  this 

reUgrions  moral  and  religious  life  in  the  child  can  be 
^'  fully  developed  only  by  lessons  from  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  I  believe  with  Rosenkranz  that  "Educa- 
tion must,  therefore,  first  accustom  the  youth  to  the  idea 
that  in  doing  the  good  he  unites  himself  with  God  as 
with  the  absolute  Person,  but  that  in  doing  evil  he 
separates  himself  from  llim.  The  consciousness  that 
through  his  deed  ho  comes  into  relation  with  God  him- 
self, affirmatively  or  negatively,  deepens  the  moral 
standpoint,  with  its  formal  obedience  to  the  commands 
of  virtue,  to  the  standpoint  of  the  heart  that  finds  its 
all-suificient  principle  in  love." 

As,  therefore,  education  is  not  complete  without  a 
development  of  the  religious  side  of  life,  the  State,  v/hich 


L.  Seeley,  Ph.D.  7^ 

seeks  to  make  complete  men,  is  not  doing  its  whole  dutj 
in  the  public  school.  I  admit  that  in 
working  out  this  idea  there  are  great  dangers  reiieions 
and  difficulties.  I  also  admit  that  the  public 
school,  supported  by  general  tax,  cannot  be  the  arena  foi 
the  discussion  of  religious  dogmas  or  for  the  promulga- 
tion of  sectarian  beliefs.  Such  an  attempt  would  pro- 
voke strife,  arouse  suspicion,  and  defeat  the  purpose  of 
the  American  common  school.  I  believe,  however,  that 
such  universally  accepted  truths  as  the  existence  of  God, 
man's  responsibility  to  Him,  the  duty  of  man  to  man,  as 
well  as  the  great  moral  lessons  of  the  Bible,  might  well 
be  taught.  Instead  of  provoking  antagonism,  I  think 
that  parents  would  welcome  such  teaching,  provided  they 
could  be  assured  that  everything  sectarian  would  be 
rigidly  excluded. 

This  does  not  furnish  all  the  religious  instruction 
necessary — perhaps  it  can  be  called  only  moral  instruc- 
tion; but  it  is  as  far  as  the  State  can  go,  and  it  will  pre- 
pare the  way  for  the  more  spiritual  and  doctrinal  beliefs, 
which  must  be  left  to  the  home  and  the  church. 

I  might  add  many  articles  to  my  pedagogic  creed,  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  whole  ground  is  covered  by  these 
four  statements,  namely,  a  science  of  education 
which  requires  professionally  trained  teachers 
filled  with  the  true  knowledge  and  spirit  of  teaching; 
the  child  is  the  center  oi  pedagogic  interest  in  the  school, 
therefore  a  psychological  study  of  the  individual  child  is 
necessary;  the  end  of  education  is  character,  which  gives 
noblest  aim  to  instruction;  and  the  final  purpose  to  be 
sought,  which  is  also  closely  allied  to  the  preceding 
statement,  is  to  bring  the  child  to  a  knowledge  of  God, 
his  duty  to  Him  and  to  his  fellow  man. 

L,  Seeley. 
State  Normal  School,  Tuenton,  N.  J. 


THE   PEDAGOGICAL   CREED 

of   ElCHAKD    G.    BOOXE, 
President  of  the  State  Normal  College,  Ypsilanti,  Mich. 

In"  spite  of  the  term^s  etymology,  one's  creed  usually 
includes  a  good  deal  that  cannot  be  expressed  in  formal 
theses.  Between  the  belief  that  takes  form 
educational  in  explicit  judgments  and  the  unquestioned 
though  undefined  faith  that  underlies  there 
are  no  sharp  lines  of  demarcation.  The  best  that  one  be- 
lieves eludes  statement.  The  final  effort  to  put  it  into 
words  may  be  still  unsatisfactory. 

Any  serious-minded  person's  religious  creed  reveals 
this  discrepancy.  It  is  true  of  political  beliefs  and  per- 
sonal standards  of  conduct.  Like  all  expression — even 
the  best — of  the  deepest  things  of  the  heart,  they  are 
compromises. 

Nevertheless  one  should,  having  a  reason  for  the  faith 
that  is  in  him,  be  able  to  make  an  approximate  state- 
ment of  the  essentials  of  his  creed.  And,  touching 
education,  I  venture  to  do  this. 

Education   is    a  natural   and    inevitable   process — a 

quality  of  the  mind,  incident  to  one's  personality,  and 

not  something  transferred  or  acquired.     The 
Subject  and      ,  -i  i    •        i        l    i       i    i.  i       i  • 

instruments  child  IS  educated  whatever  be  his  environ- 

'  ment.  The  process,  which  is  one  of  matur- 
ing, cannot  be  prevented,  though  it  may  be  hindered 
and  distorted.  Scholarship  is  an  Mwessential  element, 
thougli  a  very  desirable  incident  and  means  of  further- 
ing a  wholesome  education.  Doing  is  a  far  more  im- 
portant instrument  of  education  than  mere  knowledge, 

78 


Richard  G.  Boone.  79 

and  quite  as  natural.  But  neither  doing  nor  knowing  is 
education;  nor  what  is  done  or  known.  It  is  always 
helpful  and  contributes  to  sound   thinking  to  regard 


B.  Q.  BooKE. 

education  as  this  spiritual  process  of  maturing,  natural 
and  inevitable,  which  may  be  directed  or  hindered,  but 
cannot  be  prevented. 

As  a  second  clause  in  this  statement  it  is  held  that 
the  world  of  thing  and  mind  and  force  and  happening 
is  the  instrument  of  one's  education,  and 
exists  for  that  purpose.     Set  over  against  the  edncationai 
intelligence  of  the  mind  is  the  intelligible    •"*^*"' 
world.     The  happenings  of  nature  are  meaningful  and 
therefore  educative.     Its  reasonableness  constitutes   it 


So  Educational  Creeds. 

the  instrument  it  is.  Tracing  out  lines  of  significance, 
following  up  sequences,  working  out  interpretations, 
grouping  and  relating  phenomena  and  experiences — 
these  are  the  steps  in  the  educational  process.  Scrappy 
learning,  disconnected  ideas,  are  not  educative  or  fruit- 
ful in  development.  The  child  is  educated  whatever 
the  environment,  provided  only  there  be  an  environment 
that  has  meaning  and  unity  and  a  purpose.  To  trace 
its  laws  and  enjoy  its  service  and  use  it  towards  high 
personal  and  social  ends  is  the  business  of  every  one, 
child  and  man.  The  incidental  maturing  process  is 
education. 

The  subject  of  education,  therefore,  is  the  child,  the 
means  or  instrument  is  thing  or  happening.  There  is 
no  virtue  in  knowledge;  but  only  in  the  effect  of  ac- 
quiring or  holding  knowledge.  The  indifference  of 
means  used  in  order  that  the  end — an  efficient  maturity 
— be  attained  is  therefore  a  corollary  of  this  article  of 
my  creed. 

As  a  third  part  of  this  creed  it  is  affirmed  that  there 
is  in  the  child  a  natural  love  for  knowledge:  an  impulse 
to  unfold  that  is  native  and  constant  and  is  manifest  in 
this  craving. 

Between  the  universe  of  things  and  phenomena  to  be 

known  and  enjoyed  and  used  and  the  mind  which  is 

Fitness  for    fitted  to  know  and  enjoy  and  use  there  is  a 

education.  ^qhX  and  abiding  affinity — an  adaptation  of 
each  for  the  other.  To  the  unspoiled  child  knowledge 
is  attractive  because  it  is  knowledge.  Primarily  it  is 
an  impersonal  and  unselfish  affinity.  Things  invite 
him.  A  world  of  happenings  exists  for  him,  and  be- 
longs to  him,  and  finds  in  his  pleasure  and  service  its 
only  reason  for  being;  whatever  is,  is  his  opportunity. 

To  save  tliis  spontaneous  and  uushamed  and  many- 
sided   interest   in    things   and   persons  and  affairs  and 


Richard  G.  Boone.  81 

make  it  active  in  adult  years  is  the  great  purpose  of  teach- 
ing.    This    interest    in    knowing  is  better 

,1         ,  ,    J  ,  .  T  ,  Conditions 

than  knowledge  as  an  abiding  purpose  and  an  and  means  of 
intelligent  effort  to  do  right  chastens  a  life  ™*  ^' 
of  mistakes.  Better  a  joyous  unreserved  pleasure  in  the 
beautiful  than  the  most  critical  estimate  of  any  in- 
dividual work  of  art.  Openness  of  mind  and  touch- 
ableness  of  heart,  effort,  experiment — these  are  at  once 
the  condition  and  the  means  of  maturing.  If  these  be 
wanting,  the  ripest  culture  stagnates.  In  the  unspoiled 
child  they  are  not  wanting — even  in  the  average  child — 
but  are  often,  if  not  usually,  pronounced  and  insistent 
and  regenerative.  That  it  is  so  is  the  saving  fact  for 
the  teacher.  This  internal  urgency  of  the  child  is  the 
one  reasonable  and  ever-present  motive  to  which  appeal 
may  be  made.  All  other  motives,  or  so-called  motives, 
are  artificial,  and  on  the  surface,  and  of  transient  force. 
The  opportunity  of  every  teacher  is  to  find  this  open 
door  to  a  child's  loves  and  interests. 

As  it  is  held,  therefore,  that  the  child  as  a  rational 
being  is  the  only  subject  of  education,  and  that  the  pro- 
cess is  a  natural  one,  that  the  world,  reason- 
able and  meaningful,  is  the  only  instrument 
of  education,  and  that  the  natural  affinity  between  these 
two,  the  love  of  the  child  for  knowledge  and  the  corre- 
sponding fitness  of  the  world  to  be  known,  constitute 
the  only  motive  in  education,  so  it  is  held  as  a  fourth 
article  in  this  creed  that  time  and  the  opportunities  that 
go  along  with  it  are  the  only  conditions  in  education. 
Given  a  reasonable  creature  in  a  meaningful  world,  and 
time  will  educate  him,  so  natural  and  inevitable  is  the 
process.  The  function  of  teaching  is  to  direct  this 
process  to  wise  and  wholesome  ends,  and  with  a  thrifty 
use  of  means.  K.  G.  Boone. 

Ypsilanti,  Mich. 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL   CEEED 

of  E.  W.  SCRIPTUEE, 

Director  of  the  Psychological  Laboratory,  Yale  University. 

I  BELiEYE  that  one  of  the  prime  duties  of  education 
ggjj_       is  to  train  the  child  to  obedience  and  self- 
control,      control.     It  would  be  hard  to  say  too  much 
;n  favor  of  military  drill  for  this  purpose. 

That  the  child  should  voluntarily  attend  to  and  cheer- 
causesof     ^^^^^Y  fo^ow  the  instruction.     If  marks,  re- 
disobedience,  vvjirds,  or  penalties  are  necessary,  the  trouble 
may  lie  in : 

1.  The  child  (mental  or  bodily  troubles,  which  should 
be  attended  to  or  at  least  understood). 

2.  The  system  of  instruction  (long  lessons,  no  inter- 
mission, dull  subjects,  vicious  regulations  as  to  posture, 
speaking,  etc.). 

3.  The  teacher  (dull  or  irritating  manner,  uninterest- 
ing method  of  conducting  the  lesson). 

4.  Bad  air  and  bad  light. 

That  the  child's  attention  should  not  be  strained  to 

the  breaking  point.     Few  grown  persons  can  listen  to  a 

sermon  or  a  lecture  for  half  an  hour  without 

point  of     fatigue.     The  Emperor  William  has  ordered 

that  the  sermons  preached  before  him  shall 

not  exceed  fifteen  minutes.     In  many  American  schools 

the  sermon  lasts  five  or  six  hours  a  day,  with  only  one 

stop  for  refreshment.     It  is  a  well-established  fact  that 

no   school   exercise   shall   last   over   45    minutes  as  an 

82 


E.  W.  Scripture. 


83 


extreme,  and  that  after  each  such  exercise  there  should 
be  an  intermission  of  10  to  20  minutes.  In  many  schools 
there  is  not  a  single  recess  during  the  whole  morning 
session  of  three  hours. 


E.  W.    SCRIPTXTRE, 

That  children   should    bo   at   least   allowed    (if  not 
taught)  to  love  the  beautiful.     When  they  are  making 
borders  and  other  designs  with  their  colored 
papers,  why  should   they   be   punished   for        the 
using  bright  colors  ?     Is  it  really  necessary 
that  all  designs  shall  be  of  muddy  colors  in  dingy  com- 


84  Educational  Creeds. 

binations  ?  It  is  true  that  onr  household  decorations 
consist  mainly  in  dingy  colors  enlivened  only  by  hideous 
contrasts.  This  is  the  natural  result  of  deriving  our 
ideas  from  a  nation  that  lives  in  a  continual  atmospheric 
and  intellectual  fog.  But  America  has  sunshine  enough 
to  make  things  pleasanter.  Do  let  the  children  have 
some  sunshine  in  their  colors,  and  don't  tell  them  that 
slate-pencil  and  chalk  are  prettier  than  -cherries  and 
plums. 

That  children  should  not  be  taught  to  love  the  ugly. 
In  many  places  their  sense  of  beauty  is  systematically 

deformed;    they   are   made   into   gesthetical 
de^rmities.  humpbacks.   This  is  done  partly  by  the  color 

work.  A  few  years  ago  sets  of  colored  tablets 
were  placed  before  the  children  in  two  cities.  Each 
child  was  to  pick  out  the  tablet  that  pleased  him  best. 
In  the  lowest  grades  they  picked  out  almost  entirely  the 
yellow,  green,  and  blue,  and  avoided  red  and  violet;  in 
the  upper  grades  there  was  a  progressive  tendency  to 
picking  out  the  colors  more  evenly;  in  the  highest 
grades  they  chose  more  red.  This  did  not  prove  that 
children  naturally  dislike  red  and  violet  and  that  as  they 
grow  older  they  learn  to  love  them.  The  children  had 
not  been  tested  with  flowers  or  pure  colors,  but  with 
X  Y  Z's  specially  prepared  tablets.  No  wonder  that  the 
children  did  not  like  the  red  and  violet  tablets;  the  red 
was  hideous,  and  the  violet  resembled  a  decaying  egg- 
plant. I  leave  the  reader  to  think  out  what  the  experi- 
ment really  proved. 

That  we  ought  not  to  allow  manufacturers  and  trades- 
men to  prescribe  our  methods   of  instruction.     If  we 

wanted  directions  for  instruction  in  chemis- 
for^saie!     ^H  ^e  would  not  go  to  a  dealer  in  chemical 

glassware  for  it — especially  if  he  declared 
that  all  the  great  chemists  that  ever  lived  were  wrong 


E.  fV.  Scripture.  85 

and  that  he  alone  understood  the  science.  There  is  to- 
day in  many  American  schools  a  department  of  instruc- 
tion in  exactly  this  condition;  it  is Well, let's  have 

no  personalities. 

That  the  hig  should  precede  the  little.  For  example, 
in  educating  a  child's  activities  the  large  movements 
should  come  first.  The  general  order  of  order  of 
studies  should  be:  Physical  exercises,  mainly  studies, 
out-of-doors;  manual  training,  writing  and  drawing, 
finer  work.  Thus  the  kindergarten  should  be  a  real 
outdoor  or  indoor  garden  devoted  mainly  to  games,  and 
not  to  small  work  like  beads  and  pegs.  Every  fact  and 
truth  now  taught  by  such  abominations  as  sewing,  the 
pegboard,  etc.,  could  be  far  better  taught  by  large  games, 
if  the  teacher  only  knew  how.  Just  after  the  kinder- 
garten the  chief  instruction  (in  addition  to  language) 
should  be  in  woodwork.  In  order  that  the  reader  may 
not  think  I  am  building  an  air-castle,  I  hasten  to  add 
that  a  carefully  developed  system  of  woodwork  for 
children  from  five  to  nine  years  of  age  is  already  in  use 
in  Sweden.  From  this  point  manual  training  (including 
laboratory  work)  should  always  form  some  part  of  the 
instruction.  At  the  appropriate  time  writing  and  draw- 
ing can  be  introduced. 

That  we  ought  to  make  our  instruction  as  truthful  as 
we  conveniently  can.     The  kindergarten  teaching  that 
the  child  is  the  sole  object  for  which  nature 
blooms  and  man  toils  is  a  medieval  lie.     The  ^^1^15^?° 
sun  does  not  rise  for  the  purpose  of  waking 
Freddy   in   the   morning,  the  birds  do  not  sing  just 
because   he   comes   out,  etc.,  etc.       If  Freddy  has  a 
healthy  American  spirit  in  him  he  soon  tires  of  such 
twaddle. 

That  "  teaching  lies "  to  children  is  an  unspeakable 


86  Educational  Creeds. 

crime.     The  ordinary  "temperance"   instruction   is   a 
Teaching    good  example  of  an  unmitiguted  lie.     The 
^«*'        usual   instruction    in    history   is    somewhat 
better. 

That  children   should  generally  have  some  idea  of 
what  they  are  talking  about.     A  favorite  song  in  the 
kindergarten  is  "The  Farmer."     How  many 
^^^words?"  children  in  a  New  York  or  Chicago  kinder- 
garten ever  learn  what  a  farmer  is  ?     Un- 
sophisticated persons  would  say  the  teacher  should  try 
to  explain  by  pictures,  stories,  etc.    A  prominent  kinder- 
gartner,  however,  says  that  the  farmer  is  to  symbolize 
an  invisible  care  that  provides  the  child's  food,  and  that 
it  makes  no  difference  how  the  child  embodies  the  idea. 
But  where   do  father   and  mother  come  in,  and   sup- 
pose the  child  has  gotten  his  idea  of  the  farmer  from 
the  comic  paper  ?     It's  hardly  fair  to  the  farmer,  any- 
way. 

That  instruction  in  metaphysics  is  out  of  place  in  the 
kindergarten.  Some  one  once  said  that  England  was 
the  place  where  the  good  old  German  phi- 
losophies went  when  they  were  dead.  Hegelian 
philosophy  had  just  gone  there.  This  was  many  years 
ago.  Now  Hegelian  philosophy  has  found  its  home  in 
the  American  kindergarten.  Everything  symbolizes 
something.  The  sphere  symbolizes  the  universe,  the 
sun,  the  earth,  the  moon.  (Why  not  the  orange,  the 
grape,  and  the  soap-bubble  ?)  The  cylinder  symbolizes 
— you  can  finish  the  list  by  referring  to  various  kinder- 
garten books.  Nothing  is  what  it  is,  and  everything  is 
what  it  isn't.  You  may  not  understand  it;  but  then 
you  must  remember  that  Hegel  himself  said  that  "  Only 
one  man  had  ever  understood  his  philosophy — and, 
after  all,  he  hadn't  really  grasped  it." 
Tiiat  children  should  be  educated  to  the  good  side  of 


E.  W.  Scripture.  87 

life :  they  will  learn   the  bad  soon  enough.     It  is  the 
fashion,  however,  in   many  American  com- 
munities to  send  epileptics,  idiots,  and  other    go<5^ide. 
monstrosities  to  the  public  schools — presum- 
ably to  toughen  the  sound  children  at  as  early  an  age  as 
possible. 

That  most  criminal  natures  show  themselves  in  child- 
hood and  that  there  is  some  hope  of  curing  them  at 
that  time.     The   duty  of   the  ideal   school 

Defectives 

would  be  to  watch  for  such  defectives  and 

then  to  either  properly  train  them  or  send  them  to 

appropriate  institutions. 

That  the  education  acquired  in  ordinary    Boarding- 
boarding-schools  consists  largely  of  vicious     schools, 
habits. 

That  an  ideal  system  of  boarding-school  instruction 
for  degenerates  is  to  be  found  in  the  Elmira  reforma- 
tory. 

That  the  child  has  an  inalienable  right  to  the  pursuit 
of  health  and  happiness.     The  child,  however,  cannot 
defend  himself.     By  the  law  of  compulsory 
school  attendance  and  by  the  tyranny  of  his        and 
parents  he  is  forced  daily  to  buy  and  sell     *'*  *"' 
stock  on  the  disease  exchange.    He  traffics  in  diphtheria, 
measles,  scarlet  fever,  and  other  valuable  commodities, 
and  generally  acquires  plenty  of  each.     He  frequently 
retires  at  an  early  date  from  the  business  of  this  life. 

That  if  a  child  is  compelled  to  go  to  school  he  has 
the  right  to  a  fair  chance  of  living.     In  a  certain  kin- 
dergarten of  sixty  pupils  there  were  at  one 
time  last  year  only  fourteen  in  attendance;     h^^^g. 
the  rest  had  measles  and   diphtheria.     We 
read  lists  of  school  graduates  each  year,  but  nobody  adds 
the  names  of  those  who  hud  early  in  the  course  gradu- 
ated to  the  graveyard.     There  is  only  one  protection, 


88  Educational  Creeds. 

namely,  the  daily  systematic  inspection  of  the  schools 
by  specially  appointed  physicians  supported  by  the 
authority  of  the  State.  In  civilized  countries  like  Ger- 
many and  France  this  is  everywhere  carefully  provided. 
In  America  there  are  only  a  few  cities  that  attempt  it. 
The  rest  of  us  must  send  our  children  to  school  with 
the  certainty  of  dangerous  and  expensive  diseases  to  be 
acquired,  and  with  the  probability  of  debility,  deafness, 
or  death. 

That  a  child's  mind  should  have  a  fair  chance  to 
work.  It  is  not  a  fair  chance  to  poison  his  brain  with 
carbonic  acid  by  shutting  him  for  hours  in  a  small  room. 
One  cubic  foot  of  fresh  air  per  second  per  person  is  the 
minimum  allowance  necessary  for  health.  If  there  are 
thirty  pupils  in  a  room  there  must  be  at  least  thirty 
cubic  feet  of  air  entering  every  second,  etc. 

That  it  is  not  advisable  to  employ  methods  of  instruc- 
tion such  as  to  ruin  all  the  children's  eyes;  we  ought  to 
leave  at  least  one  good  eye  for  each  child. 

That  it  is  not  safe  to  remain  in  the  old  ruts  any 
longer;  the  public  may  some  time  have  something  to 
say. 

That  the  whole  blame,  after  all,  lies  with  the  public 
that  allows  the  boards  of  education  to  be  made  up  en- 
tirely of  shoe  dealers,  lawyers,  tea  merchants, 
reform  wiu  brewers,  etc.  It  is  a  superhuman  and  im- 
possible task  for  a  superintendent  or  a  prin- 
cipal— no  matter  how  gifted  he  may  be — to  educate  the 
board  of  education,  keep  his  place,  and  run  the  schools 
at  the  same  time. 

That  there  is  a  good  time  coming: 

1.  When  the  school  system  shall  be  not  only  nominally 
but  really  out  of  politics. 

2.  When  intelligent  members  of  the  board  will  assist 
and  support  the  superintendent. 


E.  IV.  Scripture.  89 

3.  When  only  trained  teachers  will  be  employed. 

4.  When  the  normal  schools  will  give  thorough  in- 
struction not  only  in  physiology,  but  also  in  the  science 
of  mind. 

5.  When  education  will  be  an  art  based  on  scientific 
principles  and  not  a  hodge-podge  of  antiquated  philoso- 
phies, vague  psychologies,  innumerable  fads,  and  endless 
nonsense. 


^rf^/^  ScY^/^^^^^. 


YAiiB  Uniyebbity,  Nkw  Haven,  Conn. 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  Louis  H.  Jones, 

Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  Cleveland,  0. 

I  DO  not  know  that  my  pedagogical  creed  differs 
much  from  the  general  belief  of  the  average  superintend- 
ent of  schools.  However,  there  are  some  things  which 
I  do  firmly  believe  in  reference  to  the  philosophy  of 
education;  so  here  I  pen  them. 

I  believe  that  the  true 
basis  for  all  methods  of 
procedure  in  education  is 
a  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  man — as  child, 
youth,  and  adult;  as  in- 
dividual    and 

^Sf  mSf"  '^s  a   member 

of  society;  as 

a  being  with  a  history  and 

a  destiny.     No   abstract 

psychology,  nor  any  mere 

child-study,    will    lay    a 

basis    sufficiently    broad, 

though  both  of  them  are 

L.  H.  Jones.  included     in     a     proper 

knowledge  of  man.    Even 

the  knowledge  of  man  as  a  person,  without  regard  to 

social  and  rational  characteristics,  will  not  suffice;  all 

phases  of  the  human  being  must  receive  consideration. 

90 


Louis  H.  Jones.  91 

•  Having  found  man's  natural  characteristics,  and  hav- 
ing discovered  his  possible  development,  we  are  in  con- 
dition to  determine  our  ideals  of  character 

mi  •  Ideals, 

and  set  up  our  ends  of  education.     This  con- 
cludes our  first  line  of  investigation  and  gives  us  our 
primary  set  of  beliefs. 

I  believe  that  the  next  most  necessary  theme  for  in- 
vestigation by  the  student  of  education  is  the  nature  of 
the  various  ideas  which  constitute  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  learning,  and  which  must 
constitute  the  means  of  development  of  the  human  be- 
ing who  by  appropriate  activities  learns  them.  The 
teaclier  needs  to  know,  at  least  in  a  general  way,  the 
precise  use  which  each  branch  of  learning  is  best  adapted 
to  serve  in  the  proper  education  of  the  young. 

Following  the  studies  here  indicated  I  believe  it  is 
profitable  to  study  methods — i.  e.,  the  rationale  of  the 
steps   by  which    the    human  being    under    metjioiof 
guidance  appropriates  and  assimilates  these    learning, 
branches  of  learning  so  as  to  secure  his  best,  completest, 
and  most  harmonious  development. 

In  a  similar  way  it  is  necessary  to  study  what  lines  of 
conduct  must  be  taught — V.  e.,  what  discipline  must  be 
enforced,  to  the  end  of  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  character.  I  believe  that  along  the 
lines  here  so  imperfectly  sketched  a  theory  of  education 
may  be  discovered  which  will  stand  the  tests  required 
of  a  science,  and  which  will  furnish  the  necessary  rules 
for  the  guidance  of  teachers  in  the  proper  prosecution 
of  their  work. 

I  believe  that  some  people  are  born  with  so  much  tact 
and  grace  that   they  teach  well  by  instinct,  and  that 
some  of  the    best   work   done  in   primary       ^^^ 
schools  is  done  by  such  people.     But  I  have    teacJiers. 
noticed  that  such  people,  after  a  little  experience,  unless 


92  Educational  Creeds, 

they  set  themselves  seriously  to  work  to  learn  the  science  • 
of  education,  become  formal  and  artificial  and  lifeless  in 
their  teaching.  So  that  I  firmly  believe  that  the  only 
safe  way  for  all  teachers  is  to  continue  to  study  while 
they  teach,  and  to  seek  through  all  the  days  of  their 
teaching  life  for  the  better  ways  of  teaching. 

I  believe  that  methods  devised  empirically  and  used 

formally   are  of  little  real  worth;    but  that  methods 

Good       wrought  out  by  close  observation,  generous 

methods,  reading,  and  profound  thinking,  and  applied 
under  a  high  ideal  and  a  deep  feeling  of  responsibility, 
are  full  of  life  and  worth. 

But  I  believe  further  that  even  a  good  method,  in 

order  to  accomplish  its  best  work  in  the  schoolroom. 

Social       must  be  wrought  out  by  a  man  or  a  woman 

relations,  ^f  high  ideals  of  character  and  achievement. 
The  teacher  must  believe  in  a  theory  of  education  which 
ennobles  those  in  whom  it  is  realized.  I  believe  that  is 
the  best  education  which  teaches  us  how  we — society — 
are  all  joined  together  as  a  whole,  for  better,  for  worse, 
for  richer  or  poorer,  in  sickness  and  in  health;  that 
when  one  member  suffereth  the  others  suffer  likewise  by 
a  humanitarian  sympathy;  that  the  criminal  is  one  who 
finds  himself  in  a  state  of  maladjustment  to  the  social 
whole,  fighting  the  hopeless  fight  against  ethically  or- 
ganized society. 

I  believe  we  should  teach  the  child  to  spell  correctly, 
to  read  readily,  to  write  legibly,  and  to  calculate  accu- 
rately.    I  believe  in  teaching  the  child  the 

education.  •^'g^i^'J  of  labor  through  a  well-arranged 
course  of  manual  training.  But  these  are 
the  mere  beginnings  of  education;  and  by  confining 
ourselves  to  these  we  are  denying  to  our  children  their 
divine  birthright — we  are  really  denying  them  as  yet 
the  rights  guaranteed  them  by  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 


Louis  H.  Jones.  93 

pendence — the  right  to  life,  which  is  not  mere  exist- 
ence; to  liberty,  which  is  not  mere  freedom  from 
physical  bondage;  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  which 
does  not  consist  chiefly  in  the  getting  of  money  or  the 
gratifying  of  the  animal  propensities. 

I  believe  in  preparing  the  child  by  a  very  practical 
drill  in  the  elements  of  an  education  to  earn  an  honest 
living;  but  I  believe  also  in  teaching  him  to 
recognize  what  is  honest  and  pure  and  sweet    ^i^f*^ 
and  wholesome  in  life.     I  believe  in  teaching 
him  that  work  is  honorable — that  drudgery  may  even 
be  divine,  if  inspired  and  controlled  by  sound  principle. 
Indeed,  to  live  up  to  a  high  standard  of  life  in  a  civiliza- 
tion still  holding  many  of  the  crudities  and  evils  of 
savage  life  requires  that  each  of  us  shall  daily  do  many 
things  which  in  themselves  are  not  only  not  pleasurable 
but  are  positively  distasteful. 

I  believe  in  giving  the  young  ideals  of  life  and  char- 
acter and  human  worth  and  dignity,  which  will  enable 
them  to  stand  firm  under  all  tribulations  and  ^jgj^ 
drudge  till  the  glorious  end  be  achieved.  In  motives, 
and  of  itself  much  of  our  daily  work  is  necessarily 
drudgery,  while  much  of  it  requires  that  we  bear  large 
responsibilities,  endure  petty  annoyances,  and  do  dis- 
agreeable things.  It  is  impossible  that  we  shall  feel 
any  real  interest  in  these  things  by  reason  of  any  grati- 
fication of  any  power  of  ours  by  any  attribute  of  theirs. 
There  is  therefore  no  motive  to  do  these  things  unless 
one  can  be  found  elsewhere,  but  so  related  to  these  acts 
as  to  constitute  for  the  time  being  a  valid  vicarious  in- 
terest. 

This  is  a  true  ideal  of  the  joyful  service  we  can  do. 
The  end  not  only  justifies  the  means  but  glorifies  it  as 
well.     The  continued  contemplation  of  the  ideal  condi- 


94  Educational  Creeds. 

tions  to  be  achieved  by  work  for  the  service  of  loved 
ones  gives  a  pleasure  akin  to  realization,  glid- 
of  achkve-  ing  at  last  into  the  glory  of  actual  achieve- 
ment. Happy  is  he  in  life  who  can  so  live 
and  think  and  feel  that  the  effulgent  glory  of  his  ideal 
life  is  thrown  backward  till  it  lights  up  all  the  pathway 
of  his  actual  life.  His  ideal  becomes  the  magnetic  pole 
of  his  life  and  conduct.  He  will  work  and  drudge  ten 
hours  per  day,  if  need  be,  that  he  may  found  his  ideal 
family  life  and  keep  it  sweet  and  pure  under  the  shadow 
of  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree.  If  properly  educated,  he 
will  march  with  steady  step  to  the  cannon's  mouth  at 
the  call  of  his  patriotic  ideal,  counting  life  and  limbs  as 
mere  incidents  in  the  series  of  movements  by  which 
civil  and  religious  liberty  are  established.  He  will 
counsel  together  with  his  neighbors,  foregoing  his  per- 
sonal preferences,  in  order  that  the  social  whole  may  be 
unbroken.  His  interests  are  so  set  in  the  best  things 
that  he  cannot  unbend  to  the  mean  or  the  low;  and  the 
high  sense  of  gratification  coming  from  the  realization 
within  himself  of  a  high  grade  of  manhood  compensates 
for  laborious  effort  and  frequent  disappointments  in  ex- 
ternal plans  and  purposes. 

The  end  and  aim  of  modern  education  requires  that 

one  become  able  to  think  clearly,  to  aspire  nobly,  to 

drudge  cheerfully,  to  sympathize  broadly,  to 

decide  righteously,  and  to  perform  ably;  in 

short,  to  be  a  good  citizen. 


SUPEUINTENDENT  OP  SCHOOLS,  CLEVELAND,  O. 


THE   PEDAGOGICAL  CREED 
of  R.  Heber  Holbrook,  Ph.D., 

Principal  High  School,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

1.  Tlie  soul  is  a  germ  of  the  divine  in  a  process  of 
conscious  growth  by  means  of  its  environ- 
ment towards  the  divine  ideal.  of 

2.  Environment  is  a  term  indicating  all 

the  resisting  (action)  forces  of  nature  upon  which  the 
energy  of  the  soul  must  react  (reaction)  in  order  to 
reveal  itself  or  to  grow. 

3.  Teaching  is  a  conscious  effort  to  favor  the  growth 
of  the  soul  by  harmonizing  it  with  its  environment. 

4.  Groivth  is  a  term  designating  that  plan  or  law 
of  the  divine  in  nature  according  to  which  all  change 
makes  towards  improvement. 

5.  Growth,  as  an  idea,  is  essentially  dual,  necessarily 
involving  opposites,  as:  progress  and  regress;  less  ma- 
ture, more  mature  ;  higher,  lower  ;  stronger,  weaker; 
up  and  down;  positive,  negative;  more  and  less;  light 
and  darkness,  hot  and  cold,  pleasure  and  pain,  wisdom 
and  ignorance,  good  and  evil,  righteousness  and  sin, 
life  and  death. 

To  think  growth  is  to  think  such  opposites  and  to 
account  for  them,  and  to  realize  that  neither  is  think- 
able without  the  other. 

6.  God  might  have  created  all  things  perfect,  making 
change  unthinkable,  progress,  learning,  happiness,  and 
salvation  impossible,  but  He  did  not.  A  divine 

7.  Frec-ioill,    self-responsibility,  and    the       ^'^' 
partnership  of  man  with  God  as  a  Creator  are  possible 

95 


96 


Educational  Creeds. 


and  thinkable  only  as  under  the  law  of  growth  estab- 
lished by  God. 

8.  All  groioih  is  of  the  divine,  not  of  the  human, 
since  growth  is  but  a  plan  or  law  by  which  the  divine 


R.   H.   HOLBROOK. 


force  works.  But  the  human  soul  attains  to  the  divine 
image  by  learning  good  and  evil,  that  is,  by  becoming 
conscious  of  the  laws  of  growth  in  itself  towards  the 
divine  ideal,  and  so  of  the  fact  tliat  of  this  ideal  it  is 
itself  the  germ,  the  prophecy,  the  promise,  the  potency. 
9.  TJie  Father  is  creating  the  soul  through  growth,  as 
He  creates  all  things.  The  soul's  consciousness  of  its 
own  growth,  attained  through  the  knowledge  of  good 


R.  Hebei  holbrook,  Ph.D.  97 

and  evil;  of  progress  and  regress;  of  ability,  on  its  own 
part,  to  favor  progress  or  regress  ;  of  free  choice  ;  of 
self-responsibility  ;  of  creating  itself  through  growth  ; 
of  thus  sharing  in  the  highest  power  of  the  divine,  is 
the  consciousness  of  the  soul  that  it  is  made  in  the 
image  of  God. 

10.  Teaching  is,  therefore,  soul  creating.  It  is  the 
soul  favoring  the  growth  of  soul — its  own  soul  and  the 
souls  of  others. 

11.  Years  of  discretion  is  a  term  indicating  that  time 
in  the  life  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  of  every    Rgspoasi- 
other  man  and  woman,  at  which  they  pass      W'lty. 
from  irresponsible,  therefore  innocent,  animal  existence 
to  that  full  consciousness  of  self-responsibility  which  dis- 
tinguishes the  human  from  the  mere  animal. 

12.  This  change  in  Adam  and  Eve  is  spoken  of  as 
the  **  fall  of  man  "  from  irresponsible  animalism  to  re- 
sponsible Godship.  "  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as  one 
of  us  to  knoiu  good  and  evil,"  was  spoken  by  the  Lord 
of  Adam  and  Eve  after  they  had  eaten  the  forbidden 
fruit  ;  through  this  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  man 
stepped  to  his  divine  estate,  realizing  that  favoring 
soul-growth  (in  himself  and  others)  is  good,  and  that 
impeding  soul-growth  is  evil. 

13.  The  soul,  being  in  the  process  of  grotuth,  is  grow- 
ing into  an  increasing  and  clearer  knowledge       g^^. 

of  its  own  growth,  and   therefore  into  the  knowledge, 
knowledge  of  the  hoio  to  favor  its  growth. 

14.  Conversion  is  the  conscious  recognition  by  the 
soul  of  the  loving  fatherhood  and  teachership  of  God 
(as  manifested  by  the  law  of  growth  in  all 
phenomena    and     demonstrated     in    Jesus     with  the 
Christ),  accompanied  with  a  painful  sense  of 

past  ignorance  blindness,  and  disloyalty  (sin),  followed 
by  a  joyous  discovery,  through  the  life  and  death  (the 


98  Educational  Creeds. 

blood)  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  by  turning  about  and  work- 
ing with  God  in  his  plans,  by  harmonizing  one's  self, 
therefore,  with  His  laws  as  fast  as  they  are  learned,  one 
may  best  grow  into  a  higher  realization  of  the  divine 
ideal  in  his  own  soul. 

15.  All  teaching,  therefore,  leads  to  a  deeper  insight 
Deeper      ^^^^^  ^^®  plans  of  God,  and  always  makes 

insight,  towards  conversion  first,  then  continuously 
towards  increased  knowledge. 

16.  Knowledge  is,  ilierefore,  itself  a  growth,  and  is 
made  possible  only  through  the  growth  of  the  soul. 

17.  The  aim  of  all  teaching,  of  all  knowledge,  of  all 
living,  therefore,  is  the  growth  of  the  soul  towards  the 
divine  ideal.  The  soul  has,  before  all  else,  this  one 
purpose — the  growth  of  soul,  its  own  soul  and  the  souls 
of  others. 

18.  The  feeling  of  duty  is  the  soul's  consciousness  of 

this  purpose.     This  is  conscience,  the  feeling 
of  obligation,  the  feeling  of  oughtness,  the 

feeling  of  being  able  to  aid  or  impede  growth  and  the 

necessity  of  choosing  the  right. 

19.  Tlie  priinor dial  feeling  of  the  mind  is  conscience. 

20.  llie  primordial  knowing  of  the  mind  is  the  con- 
scious discrimination  as  to  what  is  right  and  what  is 
wrong. 

21.  Tlie  prifiiordial  willing  is  the  choosing  between 
the  right  and  the  wrong  by  doitig  it, 

23,  Sensibility,  intellect,  and  loill,  in  their  elemental 
The  Divine  P^^^^e  and  successive  development,  are  the 
**^*'       dim  miniatures  of  the  Divine  Mind  as  graph- 
ically  delineated    by   Moses   in   the    first    chapter    of 
Genesis, 

They  are  the  radicle,  the  axis,  and  the  plumule  of 
the  mind  or  soul.  All  teaching  is  favoring  the  develop- 
ment of  these  divine  and  divinely  growing  energies. 


R.  Heber  Holbrook,  Ph.D.  99 

23.   These  elemental  energies  are  equal,  co-ordinate, 
simultaneous,  inseparable,  one.    To  make  one  co-ordinate 
of  these  subordinate  to  the  others,  or  to  make    energries. 
any  one  dominate  the  others,  is  to  be  partial  and  hurtful. 

21.  They  Are  Transcendental. — They  are  not  only 
the  very  unified  elements  of  the  soul  and  mind,  but 
they  are  outside  of  and  dominate  the  entire  environ- 
ment of  the  mind. 

25.  Hie  TJiree  Pedagogical  Axioms. — Out  of  this  law 
of  growth  proceed  the  three  principal  prop-  pedagoeicai 
erties  of  the  mind,  showing  what  the  mind     axioms. 

is  as  it  is  in  the  presence  of  the  teacher  for  training: 
(a)  The  mind  is  naturally  self-active. 
{b)  The  mind  naturally  grows  right, 
(c)  The  mind  naturally  enjoys  growing  right. 

26.  The  Three  Pedagogical  Posttdates. — Out  of  this 
law  of  growth  proceed  the  three  primordial 
possibilities  of  the  teacher  with  the  mind,  ^sf^ftes^ 
showing  what  he  may  do  with  the  mind,  or 

the  three  lines  of  direction  along  which  he  may  train 

the  mind; 

(a)  The  mind  may  be  fed.     (Instruction.) 

(5)  The  mind  may  be  stimulated.     (Discipline.) 

(c)  The  mind  jnay  be  directed.     (Habit.) 

27.  The  Three  Pedagogical  Conditions. — Out  of  this 
law  of  growth  come  the  three  conditions  which  pedaeoeicai 
raiist  exist  before  the  mind  can  be  trained:      conditions. 

(a)  The  mind  must  be  hungry.     (Interest  or  force.) 
{b)  The  mind  must  be  free.     (Individuality  or  space  ) 
(c)  The  mind   must   have   time   in   which  to  grow. 

(Time.) 

Out  of  these  twenty-seven  articles  come  the  wlioie 

science  and  art  of  education. 

K.  Heber  Hoi,bbook. 
Pittsburg,  Pa, 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  CREED 
of  Patterson  DuBois, 

Author  of  "  Beckonings  from  Little  Hands  "  and  "  The  Point  of 
Contact  in  Teaching." 

It  is  easier  to  know  how  to  begin  to  formulate  one's 
educational  creed  than  to   know  just  where   to   stop. 

Creeds  are  supposed  to  deal  with  fundamen- 
^detau.°*    ^^^^   ^^  essentials.     There  are  fundamental 

psychological  and  sociological  facts,  and 
there  are  doctrines  or  theories  of  motive  and  of  method. 
In  a  short  statement  of  one's  convictions,  such  as  a 
creed  is  supposed  to  be,  these  facts  and  principles  must 
be  presented  in  some  kind  of  proportion.  "What  the 
limits  of  detail  in  statement  should  be  is  a  problem  in 
itself.  Probably  in  such  a  series  of  "  creeds  "  as  this 
each  author  has  a  certain  liberty  to  be  disproportionate, 
that  he  may  accentuate  certain  facts,  theories,  or  prin- 
ciples which  may  seem  to  him  to  have  failed  of  due 
recognition,  or  which,  for  other  reasons,  have  peculiar 
hold  upon  him. 

Education  is  that  process  by  which  an  individual  is 
led  to  acquire  ideals,  and  to  realize  them  through  his 

own  self-activity.     In  a  Christian  education 
e^DMtion.   these  ideals  are  Godward  or  Christlike.     It 

therefore  aims  to  put  the  person  in  full  pos- 
session of  every  natural  power  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness, and  so  to  develop  the  whole  nature,  physical,  in- 
tellectual, moral,  and  spiritual. 

100 


Patterson  DuBois.  loi 

This   constitutes  the  upbuilding  of  a  character,  or 
personality. 


Patterson  DtjBois. 

Inasmuch  as,  whether  we  eat  or  whether  we  drink, 

we  should  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God,  there  is,  strictly 

speaking,  no  proper  division  between  secular 

J        V    •  J        ^-  T         •  *    *i,-       Secular  and 

and  religious  education.     In   view  of  this,     reiigrions 

the  Sunday-school  ought  to  be  in  close  touch 

with  general  educational  movements,  and  it  ought,  so 

far  as  its  educative  purpose  is  concerned,  to  commend 

itself  by  reason  of  proper  pedagogical  methods  to  the 

sympathy    and  support    of  the  professional  educator 

as  such. 

Formal  education  must  take  cognizance  both  of  what 


I02  Educational  Creeds. 

child  nature  is  and  of  what  the  child  as  a  social  or  con- 
ventionalized being  must  become.  I  have 
^tte'race*^  little  sympathy  with  the  doctrine  of  parallel- 
ism between  the  development  of  the  race 
and  the  development  of  the  individual  child.  Yet  the 
child  does  come  into  an  inheritance  of  race  possessions 
or  accumulations  through  the  educative  processes.  I 
am  convinced  that  the  child  early  feels  his  right  to  be 
recognized  as  one  of  his  race.  He  is,  it  is  true,  a  very 
different  sort  of  creature  in  some  ways  from  the  adult, 
and  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  undeveloped  or  diminutive 
man.  Yet  we  do  him  injustice  and  injury  by  our  con- 
tinually passing  on  him  a  class  judgment,  and  so  make 
him  feel  himself  outside,  as  it  were,  of  the  pale  of  com- 
mon humanity.  It  is  no  sin  or  crime  for  him  to  be  a 
child,  childlike,  but  it  is  a  sin  for  us  to  mention  his 
childhood  to  him  as  though  that  were  in  itself  his  mis- 
fortune and  something  only  to  be  tolerated.  Whatever 
sense  of  unity  with  the  race  or  social  consciousness  the 
child  may  come  into,  he  must  be  a  true  child  before  he 
can  become  a  true  man.  A  too  rapid  development,  that 
deprives  a  child  of  his  childhood,  means  not  enrich- 
ment, but  impoverishment.  A  stunted,  suppressed,  or 
slighted  childhood  cannot  grow  into  the  highest  type  of 
developed  manhood. 

The  fundamental  fact  upon  which  I  base  my  peda- 
gogical creed,  so  far  as  I  am  conscious  of  having  any 
creed  capable  of  formulation,  is  that  all  con- 
akcionsness'.  sciousness  is  essentially  motor;  the  idea  of  a 
movement   is   practically   the   beginning   of 
that  movement.     This  being  so,  every  conscious  state 
into  which  we  are,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  instru- 
mental in  bringing  another  will  sooner  or  later  result 
in  an  activity,  habit-forming  or  inhibitive,  on  the  part 
of  that  other.    Couversely,  every  activity  deepens  con-. 


Patterson  DuBois.  103 

sciousness,  and  insures,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  its 
permanency. 

Whatever  theories  we  may  hold  biologically,  I  believe 
that  pedagogically  we  have  little,  if  anything,  to  do 
with  heredity,  of  which  we  are  at  best  very 
ignorant.  But  we  have  everything  to  do  and  environ- 
with  environment.  It  is  the  part  of  en- 
vironment to  suggest  ideals,  and  so  utilize  the  potential 
of  heredity,  whatever  it  may  chance  to  be. 

This  environment  does  not  develop  the  child,  but  he 

develops  himself  by  his  own  response  or  reaction  to  it. 

The  drug  does  not  cure  the  disease  by  act- 

^      ,  ,     ,      1  •  Reaction, 

lug  upon  the  organism,  but  the  organism 

cures  itself  by  acting  upon  the  drug.  Food  does  not 
make  flesh,  but  the  living  organism  makes  its  own  flesh 
by  acting  upon  and  appropriating  the  food.  For  the 
same  reason,  in  supplying  mental  and  moral  food  to  the 
child  we  must  consider  the  mental  or  spiritual  organ- 
ism which  is  to  react  or  respond  to  it.  Hence  we  must 
always  meet  him  on  the  plane  of  his  own  experience. 
We  must  start  at  his  point  of  contact  with  life.  We 
must  address  ourselves  to  some  initial  interest,  ideal, 
instinct,  or  activity  of  his  own  as  the  primary  factor  in 
our  general  procedure  from  knowns  to  unknowns. 

Education  is  therefore  not  a  matter  of  schools  and 
homes  alone,  but  of  all  life.     The  child  is  under  a  rain 
of  forces  or  suggestions   from  without,  to 
which  he  will,  in  one  degree  or  another,  re-        the 
act.     Our  office  as  his  educators  is  to  super- 
vise these  forces.    Some  must  be  directed,  some  de- 
flected, some,  in  effect,  counteracted.     We  must  put 
him  in  the  way  of  being  impinged  upon  by  advanta- 
geous forces;  we  must  defend  him  from  the  disadvan- 
tageous.    But  in  neither  process  can  we,  or  should  we, 
be  complete.     Hence  the  child  must  grow  into  the  con- 


I04  Educational  Creeds. 

scioiisness  of  the  necessity  of  choosing,  acting,  and 
overcoming  for  himself.  We  have  the  difficult  problem 
of  keeping  his  part  and  ours  in  right  proportion.  He 
must  not  be  swamped  too  early  with  responsibilities  of 
judgment,  choice,  and  independent  action;  nor  must 
he  have  his  work  done  for  him,  so  that  he  grows  up 
weak,  irresponsive,  and  inert.  He  must  learn  to  obey, 
but  we  must  first  be  obedient  to  the  divine  law  of  child 
nature  before  we  have  a  right  to  make  a  demand  of  obe- 
dience upon  him.  Obedience  is  just  as  imperative  upon 
the  man  as  upon  the  boy. 

The  prime  obstacle  to  our  doing  the  best  that  might 

be  done  for  the  child's  education  is  our  adult  egotism. 

The  shadow  of  ourselves  obscures  the  child. 

e^tism.  ^^  press  upon  him  our  formularies,  our  the- 
ologies and  philosophies,  our  inverted  orders 
of  thought,  our  remote  reasons,  our  inarticulate  allu- 
sions, our  institutional  consciousness,  and  all  that  comes 
by  experience  and  conventionality,  and  suppose  that  by 
talking  these  things  in  a  jargon  of  mixed  baby  talk  and 
technics  we  are  meeting  him  on  the  plane  of  his  experi- 
ence. We  lead  him  into  evil  by  suggesting  to  him 
forms  of  evil  not  level  or  likely  to  his  experience,  and 
from  which  he  is  in  no  immediate  danger.  We  mis- 
name his  motives  and  his  actions,  and  read  into  them 
significances  of  which  he  is  entirely  unconscious. 
Many  an  activity  in  a  child  has  a  different  basal  signifi- 
cance from  that  which  the  same  activity  has  in  his 
adult  accusers,  from  whom  he  has  taken  it  by  sugges- 
tion and  in  innocent  faith  that  they  were  his  natural 
exemplars.  We  complain  of  the  child's  excessive  activ- 
ity instead  of  utilizing  it,  and  think  of  him  as  a  fellow 
being  to  be  corrected  rather  than  directed,  to  be 
thwarted  rather  than  understood;  and  we  think  more 
of  being  ourselves  obeyed  than  of  having  him  obedient. 


Patterson  DuBois.  105 

We  Jire  egotists  always  in  tlie  presence  of  cliildrun,  and 
so  do  we  impede  their  education  instead  of  facilitat- 
ing it. 

Another  obstacle  is  our  satisfaction  in  interesting  the 
child,  or  in  gaining  his  attention.     We  do  not  stop  to 

inquire  what  it  is  that  he  is  attending  to,  or 

,,..      1,1      ...  ij-  J      1  Interest 

wnat  it  IS  that  he  is  interested  m,  and,  above        and 

all,  what  profound  significance  lies  at  the 

bottom  of  that  close  interest,  that  rapt  attention. 

While   it   is  true  that  much  can  be  accomplished, 

doubtless,  by  the  cultivation  of  brain-cells,   it   is  also 

true  that  nothing  but  those  experiences  in 

...  .      °        ^  '■  Limitations, 

which  space,  time,  and  remote  causes  are  es- 
sential factors  can  make  certain  classes  of  concepts  pos- 
sible to  the  child  mind.  One  thing  is  to  be  always 
remembered  in  dealing  with  the  young  child:  that 
which  is  remote  is  out  of  his  grasp.  He  deals  with  the 
immediate  in  space,  time,  cause,  or  interest.  We  must 
meet  him  with  this  limitation  clearly  in  view,  or  we 
labor  to  no  purpose. 

Our  duty  as  educators,  formal  or  informal,  then,  is,  as 
I  see  it,  comprehended  in  our  office  as  ward- 
ers of  the  child's  environment.     And  this    f^^on* 
office  has  the  threefold  function  already  de- 
scribed of  direction,  deflection,  and  counleractio7i. 

We  direct  when  we  address  ourselves  to  the  child 
consciously    as    instructors,    bringing    to    him    ideals 
through  nature,  literature,  art,   morals,  or    Direction 
spiritual  duties  and  aspirations.     We  deflect  ^^J;l^^^' 
when,  seeing  the  child  subjected  to  all  man-      action, 
ner  of  unwise  suggestion,  unfair  treatment,  unnecessary 
hardship,  cruelty,  ill-timed  conversation,  literature,  pic- 
tures, or  terrifying  and  brutalizing  stories,  we  do  what 
we  can  to  draw  off  his  attention  or  rescue  him  from  the 
positive  limbo  or  slavery  of  his  custodians.     We  cou}i- 


io6  Edticational  Creeds. 

teract  when,  having  misjudged  him,  or  having  found 
him  absorbing  conversation  which  he  should  not  hear 
(mayhap  from  good  friends  who  sit  at  our  table),  we 
take  every  subsequent  occasion  to  counteract  the  mis- 
chievous suggestion,  which  has  already  rooted  itself  in 
him  as  idea,  and  is  consequently  in  the  initial  stages  of 
formative  self-activity. 

It  is  not  only  the  parent  or  the  school-teacher  who 
ought  to  walk  circumspectly  in  the  presence  of  chil- 
dren.    The  obligation  is  on  all.     He  whose 
adfus^ment!  "walk  and  conversation "  have  come  under 
the  keen  observation  of  a  child  is  a  part  of 
that  child's  suggestive   environment.     Hence  the  im- 
mense task   of  the  professional  educator,  who  has  to 
estimate  the  relative  values  of  these  varied  environing 
influences  in  adjusting  his   curriculum.     This   adjust- 
ment will  be  efficient  in  proportion  as  it  results  in  put- 
ting the  child  in  possession  of  his  own  powers  through 
the  exercise  of  his  self-activity.     It  will  be  truly  suc- 
cessful just  so  far  as  it  develops  that  real  nature  and  ' 
those  ideals  which  are  God's  thought  of  the  child  and 
God's  desire  for  him.  Patterson  DuBois, 

The  Sunday  School  Times, 
Philadelphia. 


A  BIT  OF  A  CKEED. 
By  James  P.  Haney,  M.D., 
Director  of  Manual  Training,  Public  Schools,  New  York  City.    - 

A  PEDAGOGICAL  Creed  should  look  not  to  the  means 
but  to  the  end  of  all  education,  to  the  development  of  the 
powers  of  the  child,  physical,  mental,  spir- 
itual. The  means  may  vary,  may  change 
with  changes  in  our  knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  body  and  brain  develop,  may  change  with  altered 
social  conditions:  the  end  is  ever  the  same,  to  develop 
power — power  to  receive,  to  think,  to  execute,  to  origi- 
nate. Power  is  gotten  with  exercise,  not  from  direc- 
tions. Knowledge  alone  is  not  power;  to  be  potent,  it 
must  be  knowledge  in  use. 

If  there  be  power  to  create,  opportunity  should  be 
given  to  exercise  it,  but  no  education  can  give  creative 
power;  training  can  but  develop  the  ability     creative 
which  is  already  possessed  by  the  child,  can      power, 
but  afford  it  opportunity  for  expression. 

Power  to  execute  at  command  or  to  imitate,  these 
may  be  given,  but  such  teaching  falls  far  short  of  the 
end  of  education.  The  creative  is  far  greater  than  the 
imitative  power.  All  true  art  is  creative — no  mere  imi- 
tation has  a  right  to  be  called  art.  It  needs  the  artist 
to  make  a  die,  a  machine  may  stamp  a  copy.  Wlien  one 
gives  power  to  create  one  gives  also  power  to  enjoy. 
Thus  may  the  laborer  learn  to  delight  in  his  labor,  thus 
may  the  artisan  know  the  satisfaction  of  the  artist. 

107 


io8  Educational  Creeds. 

The  power  of  creation  depends  upon  the  imagination. 
Stifle  the  imaginative  power  and  you  throttle  the  crea- 
tion at  its  birth. 

The  growing  demand  for  free  development 
^™power!^^  of  the  imaginative  power  is  one  of  the  moot 
striking  features  of  the  broadening  channel 
in  which  the  great  stream  of  education  flows.  One  may 
note  it  in  many  curricula,  in  many  grades,  but  nowhere 
is  it  more  striking  than  in  the  modern  teaching  of  the 
arts. 

Enjoyment  of  the  jDowers  of  imagination  is  part  of  the 
birthright  of  the  little  child.  Dwarf  these  powers  in 
youth  and  they  can  never  be  developed  later.  Fortunate 
it  is  that  there  are  few  who  voluntarily  would  seek  to 
destroy  in  the  expanding  mind  the  power  to  picture. 
Some,  however,  accomplish  through  ignorance  that 
which  the  few  consummate  by  design.  There  was  once 
a  wise  man  who  said  that  those  who  rose  early  were  con- 
ceited all  the  forenoon  and  sleepy  all  the  afternoon. 
The  economic  education  which  aims  by  mechanical 
methods  to  turn  out  a  prodigy  of  formal  learning  robs 
the  little  child  of  the  power  which  in  later  years  would 
have  lightened  all  its  labor,  leaves  it  dull  and  apathetic 
in  the  afternoon  of  youth. 

To  those  who  are  close  to  the  child  nothing  is  more 

delightful  than  to  watch  the  growing  power  to  receive, 

steady      ^^  reflect,  to  execute,  but  this  growth  is  never 

growth.  ^Q  \yQ  looked  for  as  one  exhibiting  sudden 
transformation.  Tliose  who  seek  such  results  will  be 
often  disappointed.  One  must  stand  afar  to  get  the 
proper  sense  of  perspective.  None  can  see  the  change 
from  day  to  day,  and  yet  the  change  goes  daily,  hourly 
on.  Not  different  is  the  change  in  the  child  basking  in 
the  genial  warmth  of  a  sympathetic  teaching  from  that 
of  the  web  spread    upon  tlie  meadow  upon  which  from 


James  P.  Haney,  M.D.  109 

time  to  time  the  weaver  sprinkles  a  gentle  shower.  To 
such  a  one  said  a  passer,  "  A  dreary  labor  that  of  yours, 
the  same  to-day  as  yesterday."  "  Nay,"  said  the  other, 
"  I  pass  and  come  again,  and  though  I  see  no  change 
from  day  to  day,  yet  I  know  that  in  the  end  the  change 
will  show  that  all  the  while  the  linen  is  getting  whiter 
and  whiter,  cleaner  and  purer."  Without  imaginative 
power  what  were  poet,  artist,  author  ?  With  it  human- 
ity can  know  their  joy,  can  follow  beautiful  conceptions 
in  verse,  in  picture,  in  romance. 

To  the  child  should  be  given  opportunity  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  this  ^ower,  that  in  his  old  age  it  may  not  de- 
part from  him,  and  with  it  should  be  given 
the  power  to  produce  something  that  is  good,    ^^IJtsf 
something  that  is  beautiful,  something  that 
is  original.     So  may  the  arts  contribute  to  pleasure  in 
the  life  of  every  man,  and  the  delights  of  brush,  verse, 
and  melody  be  with  each  in  his  craft  or  trade. 

There  is  no  article  in  my  educational  creed  which  I 
would  place  before  the  one  which  says,  "  I  believe  in 
the  individuality  of  the  little  child."     I  be- 
lieve that  we  should  give  him  the  power  to  ^^^ty7 
receive,  reflect,  direct,  and  execute;  should 
give  him  opportunity  to  originate  and  create. 

I  believe  that  all  the  manual  arts  afford  such  oppor- 
tunity, some  to  a  greater,  some  to  a  less,  degree.  I  be- 
lieve that  no  curriculum  which  excludes  them  can 
furnish  to  the  child  chance  for  full  development. 

Education  which  neglects  the  cultivation  of  the  self- 
activity  of  the  child  does  him  the  severest  in-       geif- 
jury.     I  believe  that  all  mechanical  training    activity. 
arrests  the  education  of  the  child  by  his  own  efforts. 

I  believe  in  the  self-activity  of  the  teacher,  and  that 
books  and  formulae  whicli  prescribe  the  task  which 
should  require  the  exhibition  of  originality  on  the  part 


tio  Educational  Creeds. 

of  teacher  and  child  hinder  the  development  of  both.  I 
believe  that  the  arts  should  be  taught  but  as  means  to 
development;  that  they  should  be  made  a  vital  part  of 
the  existence  of  the  child. 

I  believe  in  beauty  in  the  schoolroom  and  that  the  love 
of  the  beautiful  is  one  of  the  strongest  incentives  to 
work;  that  the  effort  to  seek  it  sets  a  stand- 
ard purer  and  better  than  can  be  any  arti- 
ficial one.  But  I  believe  in  teaching  art  not  for  art's  sake, 
but  the  arts  for  the  child's  sake.  I  believe  the  art  which 
seeks  nicety  of  results  in  place  of  power  of  expression 
arrests  the  growth  of  the  child  at  the  heginning  and 
makes  it  diflBcult  if  not  impossible  to  contiuue  its  devel- 
ment  to  the  higher  forms  of  activity. 

In  the  teeming  tenements  there  is  one  sound  which 
rises  ever  shrill  and  clear  above  all  other  noises  of  the 
day  and  night— it  is  the  sound  of  little  chil- 
'  '  dren  wailing.     For  those  whose  sentient  ear 

is  turned  to  hear  the  silent  protests  of  the  dumb  there 
comes  from  every  class-room,  where  sit  children  doomed, 
for  no  crime,  to  be  deprived  of  that  which  is  theirs  by 
rights  divine,  the  cry  for  liberty  of  action,  the  inarticu- 
late plea  for  opportunity  to  do  as  well  as  to  learn. 

Not  long  since  there  was  noised  about  in  a  London 

slum  news  of  a  school  for  the  dull,  a  school  in  which  it 

was  said  the  slowest  boy  might  enter  and  be 

^bon'     welcome.  It  was  miles  away,  yet  not  so  far  but 

that  the  next  day  one  childish  tenant  of  the 

alley,  a  miserable  paralytic,  whose  feeble  brain  held  but 

one  passionate  longing,  painfully  dragged  himself  from 

his  foul  cellar  to  the  quiet  street  where  stood  the  Mecca 

of  his   hope.     Then,  knocking  at   the   door   with  his 

crutch,  he  sank,  stammering  his  plea,  "  For  God's  sake, 

let  me  in."   This  is  quite  true.  I  know  his  story  well.  For 

him  a  new  day  has  dawned  to  end  his  Arctic  night.    No 


James  P.  Haney,  M.D.  1 1 1 

longer  impotent,  he  has  lived  to  know  the  infinite  joy  of 
him  who  works  from  love  of  his  labor.  This  is  the  in- 
centive, the  sustenance,  the  solace,  for  all  effort.  This 
is  the  matchless,  priceless  secret  of  success  for  every  age 
and  art.  James  P.  Haney. 

New  York  City, 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  CREED 
of  T.  G.  EooPEK, 

H.  M.  Inspector  of  Schools,  England ;  author  of  "A  Pot  of  Green 
Feathers :  A  Study  of  Apperception,"  etc. 

Is  it  not  a  striking  fact  that  a  touch  of  human  nature 

in  Homer,  who  wrote,  perhaps,  3,000  years  ago,  should 

be  as  full  of  meaning  to  us  who  live  so  long 

°°  of         after  as  a  similar  touch  of  human  nature  in 

^"'^      ^'  the  works  of  Lord  Byron  or  Lord  Tennyson  ? 

This  continuity  in  the  character  of  the  human  race  is  a 

cheering  fact  to  the  educationist,  because  it  follows  as 

a  consequence  from   it  that    there   are  numerous  and 

weighty  branches   of  education   which   are   not  really 

newer,  more  doubtful,  or  more  perplexing  to-day  than 

they  were   in   the  days   of   Plato   or   St.  Paul,  or  the 

medieval  writers  on  the  subject. 

Leaving  out  of  sight  the  education  of  the  future,  I 
ask  the  reader's  attention  for  a  few  moments  while  I 
dwell  upon  those  parts  of  training  which  are 
as^im  Weal.  "°^  "®^  ^^^^  ^''®  scarcely  affected  by  modern 
changes,  whether  political,  social,  or  scien- 
tific.   I  speak  of  Reverence  as  the  ideal  in  education  be- 
cause I  wish  to  distinguish  it  from  those  very  practical 
questions  which,  however  much   vexed  and    disputed, 
admit,  nevertheless,  of  a  definite  solution.    Whether,  for 
ijistance,  you  are  to  teach  a  child  Greek  or  French  is 
doubtless  a  matter  of  controversy,  but  whichever  way 
you   finally  decide  it,   there  is  no  difficulty  in  acting 

TI2 


T.  G.  Rooper. 


"3 


upon  the  decision.  Either  Ismguage  can  be  taught. 
When,  however,  you  begin  to  deal  with  the  elements  of 
that  high  character  which  we  desire  every  child  to 
attain,  the  opposite  holds  true,  for  then  there  is  a  general 


T.    G.   ROOPER. 


agreement  as  to  the  virtues  which  we  should  try  to  im- 
plant or  cherish.  The  only  uncertainty  is  as  to  the 
success  of  our  efforts.  The  mind,  by  the  right  use  of 
the  imagination,  can  create  ideals  at  which  to  aim,  but 
experience  shows  that  man  can  only  advance  a  little 
way  in  the  direction  of  these  ideals,  for,  strive  as  he 
may  to  attain  them,  the  goal  he  niiikos  for  rem:iins  afar 
off.      Indeed,  so  imperfect  is  human   nature  that  the 


114  Educational  Creeds. 

attainment  of  one  ideal  often  seems  inconsistent  with 
the  complete  possession  of  another. 


KEVERENCE. 

My  central  thought  is  summed  up  in  the  word  "  rev- 
erence." In  one  of  Goethe's  masterpieces  upon  educa- 
tion he  takes  his  reader  to  a  secluded  monas- 
lestwes.  ^6ry>  situated  in  a  romantic  country,  where  a 
few  children  are  being  educated  upon  an 
unusual  system.  On  nearing  the  old  monastic  buildings, 
which,  instead  of  being  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  are 
now  occupied  by  special  teachers,  the  visitor  is  struck 
by  the  peculiar  antics  with  which  the  children  greet 
him  as  he  approaches.  He  notices  three  different 
gestures.  Sometimes  the  children  stand,  having  their 
arms  crossed  on  their  breasts  and  looking  up  to  heaven 
with  gladness;  sometimes  thf^y  turn  their  eyes  to  earth, 
smiling,  and  keeping  their  hands  crossed  behind  their 
backs,  as  if  tied  there;  while  in  a  third  kind  of  greeting 
they  run  together,  stand  side  by  side,  and  look  straight 
before  them. 

Naturally,  the  visitor  asks  his  guide  to  interpret  to 

him  the  meaning  of  these  strange  gestures.    "  Children," 

answers  the  interpreter,  "bring  with  them 

of         into  the  world  many  gifts  of  nature.     These 

it  is  our  duty  to  cherish.     Often,  however, 

natural  gifts  develop  best  when  left  to  themselves.    One 

there  is  that  no  child  brings  with  him  into  the  world, 

one  habit  of  mind  which  only  comes  by  training,  and 

yet  it  is  the  most  important  of  all  for  the  making  of  a 

perfect  man."     "And  what,  pray,  is  that?"  asks  the 

visitor.      "Reverence,"  answers   the  interpreter.      The 

yjsitor  is  still  puzzled. 


r.  G.  Rooper.  115 

"Yes,   reverence,"  continues  the  other;    "all  want 

that;  you,  yourself,  perhaps.     There  are  three  kinds  of 

reverence,  which  we  teach  here  in  succession, 

The  symbols, 
but  which   exert  their  full   influence  only 

when  united  in  one  character,  and  the  three  gestures 
which  you  have  seen  are  outward  symbols  corresponding 
to  these  three  kinds  of  reverence.  To  begin  with,  the 
young  child  crosses  his  arms  on  his  breast  and  casts  a 
joyous  look  heavenward.  That  action  indicates  rever- 
ence for  what  is  above  him.  Thus,  young  children  learn 
that  God  is  above  them  and  reveals  Himself  to  them  in 
their  parents  and  others  who  are  set  in  authority  over 
them.  Next,  the  children  learn  to  cross  their  hands 
behind  their  backs,  as  if  bound,  and  incline  their  face 
earthward.  This  action  indicates  reverence  for  earth, 
and  reminds  them  of  two  things:  first,  that  earth  is  the 
source  of  life  and  untold  happiness;  and,  secondly,  that 
it  is  also  the  source  of  infinite  misery;  for  from  the 
earth  arise  pain  and  sorrow,  and  earthly  wills  are  un- 
ruly, and  man  is  in  danger  of  suffering  and  doing  ill  all 
his  life  long.  In  these  two  first  stages  of  our  training 
the  children  are  taught  to  stand  alone  and  apart;  but 
in  the  third  stage  they  join  each  other  side  by  side,  as 
comrades,  and,  thus  united,  look  straight  before  them, 
facing  the  world  with  a  bold  front.  Until  man  has 
learned  to  associate  with  other  men  for  a  common  pur- 
pose there  prevails  between  him  and  his  fellows  nothing 
but  suspicion  and  mistrust.'* 

"But,"  says  the  visitor,   "you  say  reverence  is  not 
inborn,  and  needs  to  be  implanted.    Surely  every  savage 
fears  the  great  and  evident  forces  of  nature, 
and  learns  through  them,  naturally,  to  fear 
a  Being  greater  than  himself." 

"True,"  replies  the  guide;  "but  fear  is  not  rever- 
ence; the  two  things  ar?  distinct.     What  a  man  fears 


ii6  Educational  Creeds. 

he  either  seeks  to  meet  and  vanquish,  if  he  be  strong, 
or  to  avoid  and  shirk,  if  he  be  weak;  but  what  a  man 
reverences  he  seeks  to  attain  or  imitate." 

This  is  Goethe's  famous  illustration  of  reverence. 
Now  I  hold  that  while  much  remains  doubtful  and  dis- 
putable in  education,  we  have  in  this  word 
reverence,  reverence,  as  thus  interpreted,  one  thing 
fixed  and  certain,  one  thing  which  is  not 
obscure  or  new,  but  repeated  a  hundred  times  in  the 
world's  literature,  and  proved  in  practice,  as  long  as 
history  records  the  doings  of  the  human  race,  to  be  a 
solid  and  substantial  basis  for  nobility  of  character. 
We  must  implant  in  children  a  feeling  of  reverence. 
The  next  point  is,  What  are  children  to  learn  to  rever- 
ence ?  Following  Goethe,  I  would  say:  things  above, 
things  on  earth,  and  man  in  society.  I  begin  with  the 
last — reverence  for  man  in  society — the  most  important 
element  of  which  is  man's  reverence  for  his  native 
country. 

PATRIOTISM. 

I  know  that  the  word  patriotism  is  often  distrusted 
and  discredited.     Like  all  high  conceptions,  the  spirit 

of  patriotism  has  been  debased,  and  the  na- 
paJi^sm.  tional  strength  to  which  it  gives  rise  may 

be  and  has  been  abused  to  tyrannize  over  the 
weak  or  to  insult  the  oppressed.  But  the  true  spirit  of 
patriotism  is  not  one  of  false  pride  and  conceit,  not  of 
self-laudation  and  exaltation,  but  such  an  appreciation 
of  his  country's  greatness  as  leads  a  man  to  be  humble, 
modest, and  ready  to  sacrifice  himself  us  an  insignificant 
portion  for  the  good  of  the  whole  community.  It  leads 
a  youth  to  feel  how  much  others,  living  and  dead,  have 
done  for  him,  and  to  aspire  to  make  that  return  which 
lies  in  his  power  by  keeping  himself  temperate  and  well 


T.  G.  Rooper.  117 

disciplined  in  mind  and  body,  that  he  may,  when  called 
upon,  support  the  public  interest,  even  if  he  must 
sacrifice  his  own.  This  spirit  leads  a  man  to  live  for 
the  good  of  others,  and  not  for  himself  or  his  family 
alone;  it  supplies  a  motive  for  developing  his  faculties, 
instead  of  destroying  them  either  by  vice  or  idleness,  or 
even  by  a  fruitless  asceticism,  like  that  of  some  Oriental 
fakir,  sitting  out  his  life  in  dreaming  and  contempla- 
tion; it  leads  him  to  respect  his  fellow  countrymen, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  and  to  remember  that  all  of  them, 
however  divided  in  their  several  aims,  must  have  a  com- 
mon interest. 

This  is  the  spirit  that  might  replace  the  prevalent 
feeling  of  class  hatred,  that  canker  of  national  life. 
This  is  the  spirit  which  we  may  implant  in  children, 
partly  by  making  them  acquainted  with  stirring  pas- 
sages in  English  literature  which  are  inspired  by  it,  and 
partly  by  telling  them  stories  of  those  men  and  women 
who  have  consecrated  their  lives  to  their  country's  good 
and  have  believed  that  a  profitless,  comfortable  life  is 
scarcely  better  worth  living  than  a  life  of  vice. 

DISCTPLIN"E. 

Connected  with  patriotism  is  reverence  for  disciplined 
life,  and  therefore  the  next  ideal  in  education  is  that 
of  hardihood,  strictness,  and   simplicity  of 
living.      Compare    the    means   of    comfort  ^^'uf^** 
within  reach  of  almost  all  people  in  these 
days  with  the  opportunities  for  avoiding  hardship  which 
existed  a  hundred  years  ago  and  you  will  realize  the 
imminent  danger  of  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  soft 
living,  and  then  to  softness  of  life.     I  am  not  think- 
ing of  a  frigid  discipline,  which  is  often  a  substitute  for 
zeal,  and  which  may  throw  some  of  the  best  impulses  of 


ii8  Educational  Creeds. 

a  child  into  an  atrophy,  or  at  least  freeze  up  the  healthy 
flow  of  his  animal  spirits,  but  of  that  discipline  which 
develops  the  manlier  virtues. 

On  this  subject  I  will  quote  a  passage  from  Taylor: 
"  Otherwise,"  says  he,  "  do  fathers  and  mothers  handle 

their  children.    These  soften  them  with  kisses 
discfpUne.    ^^^  imperfect  noises,  with  the  pap  and  the 

breast-milk  of  soft  endearments;  they  rescue 
them  from  their  tutors,  and  snatch  them  from  disci- 
pline; they  desire  to  keep  them  fat  and  warm,  and  their 
feet  dry,  and  their  bellies  full,  and  then  the  children 
govern  and  cry,  and  prove  fools  and  troublesome,  so 
long  as  the  feminine  republic  does  endure.  But  fa- 
thers, because  they  design  to  have  their  children  wise 
and  valiant,  apt  for  counsel  and  for  arms,  send  them  to 
severe  governments  and  tie  them  to  study  and  hard 
labor,  and  afflictive  contingencies.  Softness  for  slaves 
and  domestic  pets,  and  useless  persons,  for  such  as  can- 
not ascend  higher  than  the  state  of  a  fair  ox,  or  servant, 
entertained  for  vainer  offices.  Labor,"  he  continues, 
"obedience,  and  discipline,  these  are  the  three  guides 
in  attendance  upon  the  highway  of  the  cross;  unpleas- 
ant are  they,  but  safe." 

There  never  was  a  time  when  the  numerous  distrac- 
tions  of  town   life   were   more   insidious,  and   when, 

therefore,  it   was   more   necessary  to  dwell 
^*o?me.*^    upon  the  virtues  of  singleness  of  aim  and 

simplicity  in  life.  No  doubt  a  knowledge  of 
miscellaneous  affairs  is  most  useful  to  most  people,  but 
at  what  a  risk  such  knowledge  is  obtained  in  youth! 
Let  us  think  of  the  biographies  of  men  like  Bunyan,  or 
Wesley,  and  pay  heed  how  much  they  were  content  to 
forego  of  that  which  most  people  devote  all  their  lives 
to  acquiring  or  enjoying,  and  that  in  order  to  obtain  a 
large  share  of  spiritual  treasure,  which  many  of  us  half 


T.  G.  Rooper,  119 

despise  and  most  of  us  are  very  willing  to  dispense  with. 
Then  we  may  realize  how  important  an  ingredient  in  the 
noble  nature  is  simplicity  of  life. 

CITIZENSHIP. 

It  is  not  the  important  end  of  education  to  train 
a  child  to  become  a  successful  wage-earner,  because 
"making  his  own  living"  is  not  really  the 
most  important  part  of  his  future  life.  The  SS&iJf 
real  educational  problem  is  not  a  mere  in- 
dustrial question.  We  want  to  know  how  we  can  make 
it  possible  for  all,  even  the  poorest,  to  lead  a  life  which, 
however  humble,  shall  not  want  its  share  of  dignity. 
The  boy  grows  to  be  a  man,  and  will  become  a  work- 
man, or  a  professional  man,  but  he  will  also  be  a  mem- 
ber of  a  community  and  an  American  or  an  Englishman. 
Our  problem  is  how  to  enable  him  to  play  a  man's  part 
in  that  community  and  in  that  country.  I  cannot  bet- 
ter explain  to  you  the  meaning  of  this  ideal  than  by 
quoting  a  portion  of  the  oath  which  young  men  took  in 
Athens  when  they  arrived  at  man's  estate.  "  I  will  do 
battle,"  they  swore,  "for  our  altars  and  our  homes, 
whether  aided  or  unaided.  I  will  leave  our  country  not 
less,  but  greater  and  nobler,  than  she  is  intrusted  to  me. 
I  will  reverently  obey  the  citizens  who  shall  act  as 
judges.  I  will  obey  the  laws  which  have  been  ordained, 
and  which  in  time  to  come  shall  be  ordained,  by  the 
national  will." 

This  is  the  spirit  that  pervaded  civic  life  2,000  years 
ago.     How  infinitely  grander  it  is  than  the  spirit  which 
pervades  a  large  part  of  modern  society!     It 
is  a  common  fashion  now  to  despise  the  past,   ^ra^uon.*^ 
to  belittle  great  characters,  and  to  magnify 
present  opinion  and  practice  by  a  comparison.     There 
are  many  who  believe  that  if  they  do  not  agree  with  the 


I20  Educational  Creeds. 

expressed  national  will  they  are  philosophic  and  scien- 
tific in  disregarding,  disobeying,  and  defying  it.  For 
admiration,  reverence,  and  humility  they  substitute  a 
spirit  of  cynicism,  assumption,  and  self-conceit.  Then 
I  turn  to  a  greater  work  than  the  pages  of  Greek  his- 
tory— I  mean  the  books  of  the  Bible — and  read  those 
words  of  Elijah,  when,  worn  out  with  the  cares  of  what 
seemed  a  hopeless  struggle  with  evil,  he  cried,  "It  is 
enough.  Now,  0  Lord,  take  away  my  life,  for  I  am  not 
better  than  my  fathers."  How  much  nobler,  truer,  and 
more  worthy  is  such  a  spirit  than  the  state  of  mind  of 
those  for  whom  the  past  has  no  claim  to  respect,  nor 
the  ancient  majesty  of  long  tradition  any  title  to  regard, 
nor  the  law  of  the  land  any  sacred  sanction!  Such  a 
spirit  is  the  highest  result  of  reverence  for  man  in 
society,  and  the  way  to  implant  it  in  the  mind  of  a  child 
is  by  encouraging  reverence  for  the  heroic  character. 
We  are  cynically  told  that  it  is  no  reproach  to  a  man 
that  he  is  not  a  hero.  At  any  rate,  let  children  be 
assisted  to  admire  heroism  in  all  its  forms,  because  some 
elements  of  the  heroic  character  are  necessary  to  every 
good  man.  The  contrast  between  a  heroic  death  and  a 
feeble,  discontented,  self-indulgent  life  cannot  fail  to 
be  a  bracing  contemplation.  Few  children  who  have 
learned  to  admire  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  in  the  life 
of  another  will  be  content  with  mere  ease  and  enjoy- 
ment in  their  own. 

AET. 

The  next  ideal  I  would  bring  under  your  notice  is 

reverence  for  beauty,  which  is  tlie  chief  of  "things  on 

earth."     I  think  a  good  many  of  our  people 

beauty      ^^^®  great  doubt  about  the  value  of  a  love 

for  beautiful  objects.      They  look  upon  all 

sTich   as  toys  and    trifles,   pluythiiigs  for   people   witli 


T.  G.  Rooper.  121 

leisure  and  money  to  devote  to  them,  as  an  interest  of 
which  the  best  that  can  be  said  is,  that  it  is  harmless; 
hence,  they  think  that  it  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  super- 
fluous to  make  children  acquainted  with  vanities.  Yet 
Goethe,  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  thoughtful  of 
writers,  has  said  boldly,  "  The  beautiful  is  greater  than 
the  good/'  How  can  we  reconcile  these  conflicting 
opinions  ?  "We  know  that  the  study  of  art  may  be  made 
a  frivolous  pursuit,  but  this  is  a  perversion  of  it: 

AL  !  believe  me,  there  is  more  than  so, 

That  works  such  wonders  in  the  minds  of  men  ! 

A  painting  of  "  The  Mother  and  Her  Child,"  by  Ra- 
phael; a  landscape,  by  Turner,  as  seen  in  the  midst  of 
the  eternal  peace  of  sunset;  a  carved  marble, 

by  a  Greek  artist,  who  has  fixed  forever  the  trnth,  beauty, 
...  f  -,  ,  and  goodness, 

transient  grace  of  muscular  movement,  or, 

with  intense  vividness,  the  Avorking  of  the  mind  show- 
ing itself  in  the  fleeting  expression  of  the  countenance; 
an  oratorio,  by  Handel;  a  solemn  service,  by  Bach — 
these  and  similar  works  of  art  body  forth  for  us  in  a 
way  that  nothing  else  can  the  union  of  what  things  are 
true,  beautiful,  and  good.  If  this  be  the  lesson  that 
can  be  learned  from  art,  it  is  no  mere  "crackling  of 
thorns  under  a  pot,"  but  a  sober,  serious  pursuit  that 
may,  if  rightly  followed,  brace  and  strengthen,  as  well 
as  enlarge  and  elevate,  the  mind.  But  to  get  real  good 
from  this  study  it  should  be  begun  early  in  life  and 
continued  long,  for  a  sense  of  beauty  cannot  be  snatched 
up  in  a  moment  in  our  later  years.  This  study,  in 
Shakespeare's  words. 

Is  like  the  heaven's  glorious  sun. 
That  will  not  be  deep-searched  by  saucy  looks. 

The  process  is  long  and  slow,  and  if  it  begins  with  a 
child's  delight  in  a  pretty  color  it  may  end  long  afterward 


122  Educational  Creeds. 

with  a  masculine  and  severe  joy  in  beautiful  scenes  and 
objects,  filling  tlie  soul  with  })ower.  Of  course,  I  do  not 
expect  too  much  from  art.  I  do  not  hope  to  make  chil- 
dren moral  merely  by  teaching  them  to  draw,  nor  do  I 
suppose  that  the  right  remedy  for  rotten  and  rat-riddled 
tenements  is  a  scarlet  geranium  or  an  artistic  wall-paper, 
but  I  do  believe  that  moral  beauty  is  not  different  from 
but  really  one  with  the  beauty  which  is  made  manifest 
by  artists,  and  that  if  you  teach  a  child  to  see  beauty  in 
a  shell  or  a  flower,  in  a  picture  or  a  carving,  you  are 
helping  him  to  see  the  beauty  of  right  conduct,  and, 
what  is  more,  the  ugliness  of  the  opposite. 

A  recent  number  of  the  Parent's   Revieio  supplies 
me,  from  its  invaluable  appendix,  which  contains  actual 

observations  on  the  minds  of  children,  with 
*of^beauty?*  *^^  illustrations  of  the  unexpected  influence 

of  a  sense  of  beauty  upon  moral  behavior. 
In  the  first  case  a  mother  describes  the  repugnance 
which  grew  up  in  a  little  child  of  four  years  to  sayii  g 
prayers,  and  explains  the  difficulty  of  treating  this 
temper.  "One  day,''  she  continues,  "I  took  the  little 
girl  into  a  room  where  several  tall  lilies  were  arranged  in 
pots  and  asked  her  would  she  like  to  kneel  by  them  and 
thank  God  for  making  such  beautiful  things.  She  at 
once  consented,  and  her  interest  being  awakened,  has 
continued  ever  since,  adding  a  word  of  praise  for  the 
lovely  lilies,  and  thus  a  good  habit  has  driven  out  a  bad 
one."  Who  can  fail  to  see  in  this  description  a  touch- 
ing illustration  of  one  of  the  most  exquisite  passages  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  Another  mother  states, 
that  to  quiet  a  child  three,  four,  or  five  years  old,  in  a 
passion,  she  would  take  her  to  look  at  Ilolman  Hunt's 
"  Light  of  the  "World,"  which  had  a  calming  effect  that 
no  words  could  produce.  Often  a  first  sign  of  regret 
was  asking  to  be  taken  to  see  it. 


T.  G.  Rooper.  123 

The  love  of  art  has  often  been  thought  inconsistent 

with  hardihood,  the  last  ideal  which  I  dwelt  on.     If  art 

is  devoted  to  providing;  comforts  and  luxuries 

.  ,  Hardihood, 

for  private  use,  it  may  be  so  ;  but  the  art 

which  builds  and  adorns  public  buildings,  raises  monu- 
ments to  great  men  and  great  deeds,  or  interprets  and 
reveals  to  men  beauty  which  might  escape  them,  will 
never  lead  to  selfishness  or  self-indulgence. 

There  is  an  ascetic  devotion  to  art  and  an  ascetic 
enjoyment  of  this  world's  delights,  and  it  is  this  truth 
which  Goethe  adumbrates  when  he  describes 
with  quaint  but  telling  imagery  the  gesture 
of  those  who  look  with  joy  upon  the  earth  and  yet  at 
the  same  time  stand  with  their  hands  tied  behind  their 
backs.  The  beauty  of  earth  we  ought  to  learn  to  reverence, 
but  it  cannot  be  enjoyed  without  restraint,  so  that 
parents  and  guardians  must  follow  that  Shepherd  who 
said,  "And  I  took  unto  me  two  staves;  the  one  I  called 
Beauty,  and  the  other  I  called  Bands;  and  I  fed  the 
flock  "  (Zech.  xi.  7). 

CHRISTIAN   RELIGION". 

I  have  dealt  with  reverence  of  two  kinds,  as  suggested 
by  Goethe's  famous  allegory:  reverence  for  things  on 
earth  and  reverence  for  man  in  society,  christian 
There  remains  one  more  ideal,  the  greatest  of  ^^• 
all — one  that  may  change  but  never  will  decay;  an  ideal 
that  is  ancient  yet  ever  modern,  most  well-known  and 
yet  never  carried  into  act  without  being  original;  an 
ideal  that  is  most  worthy  of  being  dwelt  upon  in  a  time 
when  so  many  are  inclined  to  disregard  it,  because,  say 
they,  "  Old  things  are  passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  are 
become  new."  The  chief  part  of  education  is  rever- 
ence for  the  Christian  life.    I  mean  by  a  Christian  life 


124  Educational  Creeds. 

an  eternal  act  of  death  into  life  done  by  Christ,  a  life  in 
which  all  may  share,  a  life  which  has  been  shared  by 
countless  numbers  of  persons  calling  themselves  Chris- 
tians during  the  last  1,800  years.  The  evidence  and  the 
substance  of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  all  the  varied  doc- 
trines that  have  prevailed  in  connection  with  it,  are  acts 
of  Christian  love.  Tongues  cease,  prophets  die,  science 
changes,  ecclesiastical  systems  flourish  and  decay — the 
act  of  love  that  seeketh  not  its  own  abideth.  Amid 
fretfulness,  discontent,  sophistry,  ambition,  the  roar  of 
the  street,  and  the  din  of  the  market  we  may  easily 
forget  or  ignore  this  ancient  and  simple  theology.  Yet, 
which  of  us  has  not  known  in  the  flesh  some  living 
example  of  Christian  life  ?  I  do  not  mean  a  Gordon  or 
a  Nightingale,  or  an  Arnold  Toynbee,  whose  fame  re- 
sounds as  far  as  the  English  tongue  is  heard,  but  one 
whose  narrow  stage  has  been  the  sick-room  or  a  dis- 
orderly and  teasing  household,  and  who  has  discharged 
lowly,  painful,  and  laborious  duties  with  such  cheerful- 
ness and  perfection  as  to  make  us  envy  the  beauty  of 
their  spirit,  which  exhibits  in  power  the  crucified  and 
risen  life  described  with  burning  eloquence  by  St.  Paul. 
It  is  when  we  come  to  know  persons  like  this  that  we  are 
forced  to  grasp  the  fact  (which  we  are  slow  and  loath  to 
credit)  that  great  men  do  mean  what  they  say. 

Such,  then,  are  the   ideals  that  we  ought  to   teach 
children  to  venerate — patriotism,  civic  life,  beauty,  and 

the  Christian  life.     Great  as  is  the  impor- 
^'^oSfs!*'*  tance  of  other  subjects,  *'  the  rudiments  of 

the  world,"  yet  if  we  bear  these  in  mind  dis- 
putes about  the  rest  will  dwindle  into  insignificance. 
Whether  we  succeed  in  instructing  children  exactly  in 
the  fashion  of  the  latest  and  most  approved  science,  yet, 
projecting  this  light  from  tlie  past  on  the  darkness  of 
the  future, we  shall  find  it  possible  to  train  them  to  lead 


T.  G.  Hooper.  125 

a  life  which  is  simple,  good,  and  true,  and  we  shall  find 
that  while  their  human  faculties  are  slowly  unfolding 
and  developing  they  are  continually  increasing  the  in- 
crease of  God. 


SOITTHAMPTON,  EnQIAND. 


SOME    ELEMENTS    OF    A    COMMON    EDUCA- 
TIONAL CEEED. 

By  George  P.  Brown", 

Editor  of  The  Public  School  Journal,  Bloomington,  111. 

The  School  Journal,  of  New  York,  has  been  doing  a 
real   service  by  publishing   the  individual  educational 

creeds  of  certain  men  prominent  as  thinkers 
'  and  teachers  in  this  country,  in  Canada,  and 
in  England.  The  writer  believes  that  if  a  statement 
could  be  made  of  the  philosophical  as  well  as  psycho- 
logical doctrines  that  underlie  most  of  the  thinking  of 
the  present  time  in  every  department  of  human  activity, 
including  that  of  education,  it  would  help  to  clear  our 
thinking  about  educational  aims  and  processes. 

The  writer  is  not  so  ambitious  as  to  attempt  to  formu- 
late this  doctrine,  but  the  following  propositions  are 

submitted  as  a  slight  contribution   to  the 
^^of  uie.^"'^  construction  of  such  a  statement.     That  the 

thought  is  centered  upon  the  process  of  school 
education,  in  formulating  these  propositions,  will  not 
militate,  it  is  hoped,  against  their  application  to  every 
other  department  of  life,  since  all  institutions  of  society 
are  but  phases  of  the  educational  process  by  which  hu- 
manity is  advanced.  The  writer  fears  that  some  readers 
will  fail  to  recognize  their  own  philosophy  of  life  in 
these  propositions,  but  it  may  be  that  further  reflection 
will  lead  them  to  discover  that  some  things  here  set 
forth  were  already  in  their  subconsciousness,  and  had 
become  the  basis  of  much  of  their  thinking. 

126 


George  P.  Brown.  127 

There  is  a  consensus  of  convictions  among  thought- 
ful men  which  constitutes  the  universal  creed  of  these 
men,  no  matter   in  what  words  they  may 
express    it.     They    may    be    interested    in  "^creedf*^ 
searching   for  these  convictions  in  the  fol- 
lowing statements  of  doctrine,  and  in  discovering  their 
application  to  the  vocation  of  teaching: 

SOME   FUNDAMENTAL  PRESUPPOSITIONS. 

The   universe  is  an  organism,  i.  e.,  the  creative  or 
constructive  principle  or  energy  is  within  it  and  not 
external  to  it.     It  is  thus  distinguished  from 
a  mechanism.     The  symbol  of  it  is  not  a  ^'tSvws^* 
watch,  but  a  flower.     The  process  of  change 
resulting  in  the  growth  of  worlds  and  of  men  we  call 
evolution,   which   is  the  modern    name   for  creation. 
Man  alone  makes  things.     All  other  things  are  in  a 
constant  process  of  growth  or  decay.     Growth,  or  synthe- 
sis, and  degeneration,  or  analysis,  are  two  aspects  of  the 
complex  process  of  nature.     The  corresponding  activi- 
ties in  the  consciousness  of  men  are  also  called  synthesis 
and  analysis.     Synthesis  builds  up,  analysis  dissolves  or 
destroys. 

The  activity  or  energy  that  is  everywhere  embodying 
itself  in  things,  and  changing  from  one  form 
to  another,  is  of  the  nature  of  will,  since  it  is 
ever  working  towards  some  end,  or  ends. 

The  only  being  on  this  planet  in  which  this  activity 
comes  to  consciousness  of  itself,  to  such  a  degree  that  it 
can  become  in  a  large  measure  self -directive. 

Self- 
is  man.     The  history  of  this  planet  shows   conscions- 

that  the  end  towards  which  this  world  energy 

has  ever  moved  has  been  its  own  embodiment  in  a  self- 

cousciouness  being.     The  purpose  of  education  in  every 


128  Educational  Creeds. 

age  of  man's  existence  has  been  to  enlarge  the  range  of 
this  consciousness. 

The  child  is  the  heir  of  all  the  ages.     "  What  tliey 
have  thought  he  may  think;  what  the  saints 
have  felt  he  may  feel;  what  at  any  time  has 
befallen  any  man  he  can  understand." 

The  direct  purpose  of  education  is  to  bring  the  child 
into  this  his  inheritance  by  such  a  method  and  route 
that  he  may  be  able  not  only  to  "  think,  feel, 
of         and  understand  "  what  the  race  has  experi- 
enced, but  also  that  he  may  be  able  to  add 
something  of  value  to  the  accumulated  store,  if  per- 
chance he  has  inherited  a  capability  for   such   contri- 
bution. 

The  child  is  a  bundle  of  potentialities  and  tendencies 
Poten-      which   education  seeks   to  stimulate  or  re- 
tiaiities.     p^ess,  as  the  ideal  set  up  by  our  time  may 
direct. 

The  end  sought  is  such  a  development  of  the  poten- 
tialities and  tendencies  of  the  child  as  shall  produce  the 
best  individual  and  the  best  citizen.  These 
are  not  two  ends,  but  one.  The  subjective, 
individual  self  is  one  with  the  objective,  universal  self 
which  we  call  the  citizen.  The  highest  order  of  in- 
dividual manhood  or  womanhood  is  also  the  highest 
order  of  citizenship. 


SOME  PSYCHOLOGICAL  ASSUMPTIONS. 

The  activities  of  the  mind,  while   they  are  of  the 
general  nature  of  will,  may  be  separated  into 
acti^tiM.    three  classes: 

(a)  Acts   that  are  non-voluntary  and  are 
either  conscious  or  unconscious. 


George  P.  Brown.  129 

(J)  Voluntary  acts  consciously  directed  towards  an 
end. 

(c)  Non-voluntary  acts  that  were  once  voluntary  but 
have  become  habitual  or  automatic. 

These  develop  or  become  actual  in  the  order  in  which 
they  are  here  enumerated. 

In  the  development  of  these  classes  of  activities  the 
movement  is  at  first  fi'om  physical  or  physiological  to 
the  mental  or  psychical.     Later,  the  initial 
activity  may  be  either  psychical   or  physi-  physical  to 
ological.     Every  psychical  act  of  any  human    ^^^^'^ 
being  is  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  physiological 
act  of  the  neural  organism.     Nerve  action  and   mind 
action  are  different  phases  or  aspects  of  that  primal 
activity  which  is   incarnated   in   nature   and   in  man, 
making  "the  whole  world  kin." 

Education   is    the   process   of  stimulating  the   har- 
monious development  and  adjustment  of  the  psychical 
and  neural  activities  that  constitute  a  human       seif- 
being,  through  the  self-activity  of  that  being,    •^t^'^ty- 
Tiie  constant  appeal  is,  therefore,  to  the  will,  which  sets 
up  ends  and  strives  to  realize  them. 

Mind,  or  Primal  Will,  strives  to  realize  itself  in  man 
in  the  forms  of  intellect,  feeling,  and  volition,  which  are 
in  essence  one  and  the  same,  but  are  different  manifesta- 
tions of  its  nature.  Each  of  these  forms  demands  for 
its  full  expression  the  harmonious  development  of  the 
other  two. 

The  human  mind  has  realized  itself  in  the  creation  of 
the  State,  in  which  volition  is  the  leading  form  of  its 
activity;  also  in  Art,  in  which  feeling  pre- 
ponderates; also  in  the  Church,  where  feel-       sell- 
ing and  will  are  the  leading  forms;  and  again 
in  Science,  including  all  the  departments  of  organized 
thought,  in  which  the  intellect  transcend?  the  other 


130  Educational  Creeds. 

powers  of  the  mind.  These  constitute  the  field  where 
education  must  seek  its  material  for  promoting  the 
harmonious  development  of  the  child. 

The  order  of  the  evolution  of  the  individual  mind 
from  infancy  to  maturity  is  the  same  in  all  individuals. 
This  makes  it  possible  to  construct  a  science 
"  of  pedagogy.  The  first  class  of  forms  that 
the  mind  creates  which  are  conscious  are  perceptions, 
together  with  the  attendant  feelings  and  volitions  that 
ujiite  v/ith  them  to  make  up  the  sense  life.  This  stage 
has  two  phases:  first,  of  interests  that  center  in  the  in- 
dividual and  are  subjective  and  self-regarding;  and 
second,  of  interests  begotten  by  the  social  instinct, 
which  are  objective  and  altruistic  in  their  nature. 

The  second  class  of  forms  which  the  mind  constructs 

are  images,  or  internal  perceptions,  which  are,  at  first, 

internal  reproductions  of  sense-perceptions: 

Images.  x         x  ? 

and  afterwards,  modifications  of  these;  and 

later,  the  creations  of  the  imagination  in  response  to  the 
instinct  for  self-realization,  which  cannot  rest  satisfied 
with  the  objects  of  sense  alone.  Neither  does  this  in- 
stinct for  self-realization  rest  satisfied  with  these  in- 
ternal creations,  but  it  is  prompted  by  its  self-regarding 
and  social  instincts  to  give  them  objective  form,  and  so 
create  an  external  world  that  shall  correspond  to  its 
internal  images.  The  imagination  seeks  to  objectify 
itself.  To  do  this  the  feelings  and  volitions  are  prom- 
inently active,  and  each  form  of  the  mind's  activity 
stimulates  and  re-enforces  the  others. 

The  third  and  latest  class  of  forms  created  by  the 
child  in  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  life  are  symbols. 
The  babblings  of  the  child  are  at  first  mere 
perceptions  to  him,  but  they  soon  come  to  be 
signs  or  symbols  of  other  things,  and  are  later  system- 
atized into  oral  speech.     The  oral  and  afterwards  the 


George  P.  Brown.  131 

written  or  printed  words  become  the  signs  of  all  in- 
dividual and  social  activities,  and  of  all  natural  objects, 
and  the  medium  by  which  the  self-regarding  and  social- 
istic instincts  are  communicated  from  one  to  another. 

After  the  first  two  years  of  the  child's  life  it  is  con- 
tinually using  perceptions,  images,  and  symbols,  in  its 
instinctive  efforts  to  realize  its  potentialities 
and  tendencies  as  an  individual  and  as  a  social     aspect  of 
being.     Individuality  and  sociality,  the  man 
and  the  citizen,  the  particular  unit  and  the  social  whole, 
are  not  separate  and  antagonistic  forms  of  being,  but 
merely   different   aspects  of    one   and    the   same  life. 
Analogous  to  this  relation  is  that  of  the  members  of  the 
body  to  the  body.      Neither  can  say  to  the  other,  "I 
have  no  need  of  thee."    Indeed,  neither  can  be  anything 
without  the  other.     Hand  cannot  be  hand  if  there  is  no 
body.      And  body  would  be  a  meaningless  abstraction 
without  the  members. 

This  double  aspect  of  life,  the  subjective  and  the  ob- 
jective, the  individual  and  the  universal,  must  be 
regarded,  at  every  step  in  the  education  of  the  child. 


METHOD. 

In  the  field  of  method  there  is  a  variety  of  beliefs  and 
practices,  according  as  one  or  another  of  the  ontological 
or  psychological  ideas  is  seen  with  greater 
clearness  than  the  others  and  so  given  greater  o^aidc*iiie. 
emphasis.     One  gives  special  prominence  to 
perceptions,   another   to   images,   another    to   symbols. 
Others  emphasize  the  social  aspect  of  life,  while  some 
exalt  the  individual.     Some  lose  sight  of  the  organic 
character  of  nature  and  of  man  and  see  the  universe  as 
a  vast  machine  moved  by  an  energy  not  itself  and  ex- 


132  Educational  Creeds. 

ternal  to  it.  This  fundamental  belief  posits  a  will  out- 
side of  this  machine.  All  growth  then  becomes  only  a 
kind  of  mechanism.  The  principle  of  self-activity  is 
not  recognized,  and  all  education  is  reduced  to  the 
operation  of  an  external  influence  upon  the  mind  to  be 
educated.  This  class  believes  that  knowledge  can  be 
"imparted/^  and  that,  too,  by  exact  definition  and  rule. 
The  reader  can  amuse  himself  by  selecting  other  ideas 
found  in  this  organism  called  mind  and  making  each 
the  center  and  controlling  principle  of  a  method  of 
procedure.  The  method  he  thus  constructs  will  prob- 
ably have  its  counterpart  in  some  institution  of  learning. 
But  out  of  this  chaos  of  thought  and  practice  there  is 
slowly  evolving  the  conception  of  a  method  in  harmony 
with  the  method  of  organic  life,  the  outline  of  which 
is  now  dimly  visible  in  the  conduct  of  some  schools. 
— From  The  Public  School  Journal,  Bloomington,  111., 
May,  1897.    [Reprinted  by  permission,] 


PEDAGOGIC  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  PESTALOZZI. 

Dr.  Karl  Rosenkranz  *  in  a  memorial  address  deliv- 
ered at  the  Pestalozzi  centennial,  January  12, 1846,  snms 
up  the  debt  which  modern  pedagogy  owes  to  Pestalozzi 
as  follows: 

"  (1)  In  the  method  of  instruction  he  has  substituted 
for  the  artificial  and  playful  modes  of  procedure  the 
striving  after  the  cheerful  seriousness  result- 
ing from  and  embodied  in  the  form  of  de- 
velopment given  by  nature  h«rself. 

"  (2)  He  has  emancipated  the  government  of  chil- 
dren from  all  terrorism.     In  place  of  compulsion  and 
lifeless  mechanism  he  has  put  the  most  lov- 
ing treatment  of  the  pupil,  in  order  to  habitu- 
ate him  to  self-activity  and  self-esteem. 

"  (3)  He  has  opened  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  all  cul- 
ture of  individual  intelligence  and  all  moral  elevation  of 
the  individual  will  are  vain  in  the  end  if 
they  do  not  issue  forth  from  out  of  the  whole   ^S^*Son. 
spirit  of  a  people  and  do  not  flow  hack  into 
it  as  its  original  property .     He  has  taught  us  to  regard 
education  essentially  as  national  education." 

*  Born  at  Magdeburg,  April  23,  1805 ;  died  at  Koenigsberg, 
1877.  Occupied  for  forty-six  years  the  chair  of  philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Koenigsberg.  Best  known  to  American  students  of 
pedagogy  as  author  of  "  The  Philosophy  of  Education."  (Inter- 
national Education  Series,  Vol.  I. ) 

133 


134  Educational  Creeds. 

Eosenkranz  repeats  these  three  points  in  the  follow- 
ing sentence: 


Pestalozzi. 

"Naturalness  of  the  method  in  teaching  and  learning; 

love  as  the   essential   form  of  all  human   intercourse, 

hence  also  that  of  educators  and  pupils;  the 

essentials,    elaboration  of  education  to  a  national  system 

— these  are  the  eternal  ideas  which  moved 

the  heart  of  Pestalozzi,  and  which  for  us  and  all  Pos- 


Pestaloiii.  135 

terity,  to  be  sure,  are  perfectible  ad  infinitum,  but  must 
never  be  given  up." 

"  It  is,"  Rosenkranz  says  in  another  place,  "  a  lasting 
achievement  of  Pestalozzi,  through  method,  to  remove  all 
arbitrariness  in  teacliing  and  learning.     In 
order  to  gain  a  clear  knowledge  of  anything,  ^Ifq^encl!*^ 
the  human  mind  must  pass  through  a  neces- 
sary sequence  of  processes.     From  sensation  and  sense- 
intuition  it  must  rise  through  ideation  to  clear  concepts. 
Instruction  cannot  give  true  insight  if  it  does  not  con- 
sider this  necessary  sequence.      In  this  psychological 
basis  Pestalozzi  fully  agrees  with  the  famous  saying  of 
Kant,  that  'sense-intuitions  without  concepts  are  blind; 
concepts  without  sense-intuitions,  empty.'" 

One  more  quotation  from  the  remarkable  address  of 
Rosenkranz : 

"  Pestalozzi  recognized  not  only  the  truth  taught  on 
evory  page  of  universal  history,  that  man  must  be  edu- 
cated; he  recognized  also  that  education,  no 
matter  how  it  may  be  modified,  is  governed     ^la^^f^ 
by  eternal  laws,  and  he  clung,  therefore,  with 
unshaken  consciousness  to  the  necessity  of  method," 


FKOEBEL'S  PEDAGOGICAL  CEEED. 

By  Vernon   Gibberd. 

Education,  according  to  Froebel,  should  be  a  harmo- 
nious development,  from  its  earliest  bud  to  its  latest 

blossom,  each  stage  preparing  for  its  subse- 
^^tion.^  queiA  one,   and  growing  gradually  into  it. 

"It  should,"  he  says,  "be  the  business  of 
every  form  of  instruction  in  its  respective  stage  to  arouse 
in  the  pupil  a  keen  and  definite  feeling  of  the  need  of 
the  next  stage."  In  effect,  he  applies  the  great  law  of 
evolution  to  education,  and  it  is  no  small  testimony  to 
the  insight  of  Froebal  that  he  should  have  anticipated 
to  some  extent  this  great  principle,  and  have  perceived 
its  application  to  education,  both  as  a  method  and  as  a 
process. 

The  essential  value  and  importance  of  early  training 
were  facts  borne  in  upon  him  by  the  discovery  that  the 

schools  of   his   day   accomplished   so  little. 
chUdhood.    Either  the  pupils  came  to  school  altogether 

unprepared,  or  with  faculties  quite  neglected 
or  misdirected  from  want  of  proper  nurture;  and  failure, 
partial  or  complete,  was  the  necessary  result.  "  There 
are,"  he  held,  "  in  the  child  germs  which,  if  they  were 
to  thrive,  must  be  developed  early,"  and  hence  the  great 
importance  attached  to  family  life  in  Froebel's  system. 
The  study  of  the  psychology  of  childhood,  which  is  be- 
ginning to  receive  serious  attention,  will  witness  to  the 

136 


Froebel. 


137 


supreme  importance  of  the  very  earliest  years  of  child- 
hood, as  a  period  when  tendencies  may  be  developed  or 
destroyed,  and  impressions  received  which  color  the 
whole  subsequent  life. 

/'But  the  great  corner-stone  of  Froebel's  teaching  is  the 
(law  of  education  by  self -activity;  it  was,  in  fact,  the  in- 


Froebel. 

spiration  of  his  genius  and  the  ruling  idea  of  his  system. 
^No  truth  is  really  our  own,"  said  Emerson,"  until  we 
have  discovered  it  for  ourselves,"  and  to  train  the  child 
to  acquire  knowledge  by  its  own  activity  was  the  aim 
which  Froebel  pursued  with  so  much  patience, p  and 
which  his  disciples  have  practiced  with  such  marked 
success.  **  To  have  found  one-fourth  of  the  answer  to  a 
question,"  he  says, "  by  his  own  effort  is  of  more  value  and 


138  Educational  Creeds. 

importance  to  a  child  than  it  is  to  half  hear  and  half 
understand  in  the  words  of  another."     To 

activity.  Pestalozzi's  assertion,  that  the  faculties  were 
developed  by  exercise,  Froebel  added  that 
the  function  of  education  was  to  develop  the  faculties  by 
arousing  voluntary  activity.  Hence,  he  insists  tbat  the 
purpose  of  teaching  and  instruction  is  to  bring  ever 
more  out  of  man  rather  than  put  more  and  more  into 
him;  and  it  was  this,  as  his  conception  of  the  method 
of  nature,  that  convinced  him  in  his  study  of  childhood 
of  the  practical  educational  value  of  work  and  play, 
both  of  which  were  used  by  him  as  a  means  of  invoking 
activity  in  the  mind  of  the  child,  and  leading  it  in  the 
right  direction. 

He  found  that  one  of  the  greatest  faults  of  school  ar- 
rangements as  then  organized  was  that  too  often,  as  not 
infrequently  now,  the  pupils  were  wholly  debarred  from 
outwardly  productive  labor.  And  yet,  as  Eousseau  has 
Productive-  ^^^^ '  "  ^  child  may  forget  what  he  sees,  and 
ness.  more  still  what  is  said  to  him,  but  he  never 
forgets  what  he  has  made;  "  or,  as  Froebel  himself  con- 
tended :  "  Lessons  through  and  by  work,  through  and 
from  life,  are  by  far  the  most  impressive  and  intelli- 
gible." A  faculty  for  production  is  instinctive  in  chil- 
dren, and  there  is  a  danger  that,  unless  this  capacity  is 
utilized  and  wisely  directed,  it  may  run  to  waste  or 
suffer  perversion;  and  it  was  because  his  experi- 
ence taught  him  that  to  learn  a  thing  in  life,  and 
through  doing,  was  more  developing,  and  cultivating, 
and  strengthening,  than  to  learn  it  merely  through  the 
verbal  communication  of  ideas,  that  he  invented  a  series 
of  "  occupations,"  as  at  once  a  satisfaction  of  native  in- 
stinct and  a  means  of  healthy  activity  and  self-acquisi- 
tion. 

Similarly,  it  was  his  sympathetic  study  of  childhood 


Froebel.  139 

that  suggested,  with  surely  the  inspiration  of  genius,  the 
educational  value  of  play.  Other  philoso- 
phers, from  Plato  downwards,  had  referred 
to  the  indicative  character  of  play,  but  the  genius  of 
Froebel  consists  in  his  discovery  of  its  potency  as  an 
educational  factor  of  the  highest  interest  and  import- 
ance, and  his  organization  of  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  use 
it  not  only  as  a  means  of  acquiring  knowledge,  but  of 
contributing  to  one  of  the  great  purposes  of  education, 
the  provocation  of  activity,  and  so  leading  by  natural 
processes  to  the  performance  of  work  with  the  same 
freedom  and  spontaneity  as  play.  "  The  plays  of  child- 
hood," he  says,  *' are  the  germinal  leaves  of  all  later 
life."  It  is  easy  to  imagine  possible  developments  of 
the  use  of  work  and  play  beyond  the  limits  of  ordinary 
elementary  education. 

But  Froebel  insisted  also  on  the  necessity  of  con- 
certed action.  He  believed  in  developing  early  the  so- 
cial impulse,  gathering  children  together  in 
groups,  and  so  encouraging  the  growth  of  t^i^, 
those  virtues  which  would  not  be  otherwise 
developed.  He  combined  the  theory  of  Pestalozzi,  that 
the  child  belonged  to  the  family,  with  that  of  Fichte, 
that  the  state  and  society  were  its  real  owners,  and  as- 
serted that  he  belonged  to  all  three.  "  The  social  im- 
pulse, the  love  of  others  beyond  the  narrow  range  of 
self  and  of  one's  own  home,  cannot  be  properly  excited 
and  developed  except  when  numbers  of  children  from 
different  homes  are  gathered  together."  The  value  and 
sanity  of  this  conclusion  are  evident  from  the  success 
which  has  attended  the  kindergarten  system,  not  only 
in  this  country,  but  especially  in  America. 

No  review  of  Froebelian  principles  would  be  complete 
without  a. reference  to  his  position  that  religion  is  the 
culmination  of  education.     He  liolds  not  onlv  tliat  re- 


I40  Educational  Creeds. 

vligion  is  an  essential  element  in  all  education,  but  also 
that  from  the  earliest  period  the  religious  sense  should 
be  carefully  and  sedulously  cultivated.  Ke- 
ligious  teaching  need  not  be  doctrinal;  it 
should  not  be  dogmatic;  but  it  should  certainly  be  defi- 
nite and  practical.  Here  also  he  would  have  the  relig- 
ious sense  evolved  as  a  natural  growth;  not  dependent 
on  outward  incentives  or  artificial  sanctions  for  its  culti- 
vation, but  rather  and  mainly  through  the  agency  of 
love,  and  by  the  child^s  realization  of  the  reflex  action 
of  his  own  conduct.  "All  education  not  founded  on  re- 
ligion," he  says,  "is  unproductive."  For  to  moral 
training  belongs  the  direction  of  conduct,  and  conduct, 
as  Matthew  Arnold  has  reminded  us,  is  occupied  with 
the  larger  part  of  human  life. — Condensed  from  an  arti- 
cle in  The  Educational  Times,  London. 


DIESTERWEG'S  PEDAGOGICAL  CEEED. 

Knowledge  does  not  involve  the  concept  of  education, 
neither  does  ability.  All  depends  on  the  will.  Willing 
dare  not  be  lacking,  the  earnest,  firm,  stirring 
willing  of  that  which  is  truly  beautiful,  true, 
and  good;  the  unceasing  striving  for  righteousness,  mor- 
ality, and  piety.  He  who  has  attained  to  firmness  in 
this,  is  called  educated.  The  means  aiding  to  this  end 
are  called  educative  means.  The  person  who  endeavors 
to  attain  this  object  in  others,  is  honored  with  the  beau- 
tiful name  of  educator. 

The  school  comes  to  the  assistance  of  education  in  the 
family  and  prepares  for  life  in  the  world;  the  church 
matures  the  bloom  and  adornment  of  politi- 
cal life  and  sanctifies  it  through  the  eternal    ^o?^^°" 
ideas  of  truth  and  piety.    All  co-operate  to 
the  end  of  bringing  about  as  perfect  as  possible  a  condi- 
tion of  human  life.     Hence  life  is  the  only  unchange- 
able aim  of  every  fruitful  activity  of    educators  and 
instructors  in  family,  in  school,  in  state,  in  church.    Life 
is  the  one  great  circle  which  unites  within  itself  all  in- 
terests to  whose  developments  all  efforts  must  be  bent; 
the  highest  task  of  all  parents,  teachers,  statesmen,  and 
clergymen.  -,. 

^Educate  according  to  Nature./    This  is  the  supreme 
principle  of  all  human  education,  of  all  life-wisdom. 

Natural  procedure  is  the  highest  degree  of  pedagogic 

141 


142 


-  Educational  Creeds. 


wisdom   in    matters   of   huniaii    education.     Procedure 
contrary  to  nature  is  tlie  highest  degree  of 
to^atBxef   pedagogic  folly  and  error.     lie  alone  is  a  true 
educator  who  in  his  educative  activity  re- 
mains always  and  everywhere  true  to  that  principle;  and 
he  misguides,  warps,  and  distorts  man  who  breaks  away 


DiESTERWEG. 

from  this  principle  and  works  in  opposition  to  it.  Hence 
the  universal,  unconditional,  and  most  comprehensive 
demand  upon  the  educator  is:  Follow  nature! 

The  principle  of  naturality  contains  two  requirements, 
OTie  negative  and  the  other  positive.  The  formers  reads: 
Avoid  in  education  everything  that  is  contrary  to  nature; 
the  latter:  Practice  conformity  to  nature. 


Diesterweg.  143 

I  believe  the  purpose  of  education,  hence  also  the  pur- 
pose of  the  training  of  teachers,  to  be  self-activity. 
Man — this  is  what  I  mean — is  to  be  educated  ggjj_ 
to  self -activity;  man  is  educated  and  in-  activity, 
structed  in  the  same  degree  in  which  he  is  educated  and 
instructed  to  self-activity,  and  he  is  uneducated  and  un- 
instructed  in  the  same  degree  in  Avhich  he  lacks  self- 
activity. 

Self-activity  of  the  pupils  is  the  final,  supreme  aim  of 
all  true  activity  of  educators;  it  is  really  the  principle  of 
human  education. 

To  this  formal  principle  must  be  added  a  material 
one.  Hence  I  say:  Development  of  self-activity  in  the 
service  of  the  trtie  and  good  or  to  the  realization  of  the 
true  and  good  in  public  life,  in  the  community  of  men. 

Tlie  fashioning  of  life  according  to  the  princij^les  of 
truth,  beauty,  goodness  in  the  highest  energy  of  self- 
activity,  is,  I  take  it,  the  problem  which  man  is  called 
upon  to  solve. 


KULES   OF   INSTEUCTION. 

(From  Diesterweg's  "  Guide  for  Teachers.") 

I.    WITH   KEGARD   TO   THE   PUPIL    (THE   SUBJECT). 

»   1.  Conform  to  the  laws  of  nature. 
V  2.  Proceed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pupil,  and  from 
there  carry  instruction   forward   continuously  without 
interruption,  without  breaks. 

A    3.  Teach   intuitively!     [Appeal  to  the  child's  sense- 
^perception  and  experience.] 

\  4.  Proceed  from  the  near  to  the  remote;  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex;  from  the  easy  to  the  difficult; 
from  the  known  to  the  unknown.  [Adapt  your  instruc- 
tion to  the  apperceptive  power  of  the  pupil.] 

5.  Proceed  in  elementary  order  [inductively]  not 
scientifically.  Scientific  procedure  begins  as  a  rule  with 
the  most  general  statements  from  which  the  particular 
and  elemental  is  deduced.  The  elementary  method  be- 
gins from  the  particular  and  from  there  proceeds  to  the 
general. 

6.  Pursue  everywhere  the  formal  as  well  as  the  mate- 
rial aim;  interest  the  pupil  through  the  same  subject  as 
many-sidedly  as  possible;  unite  particularly  knowledge 
with  doing  and  practice  what  has  been  learned  until  the 
mind  lias  complete  control  over  it. 

•   7.  Consider  the  individuality  of  your  pupils. 

144 


Diesterweg.  145 


ii.  with  reference  to  the  matter  of  instruction 
(the  object). 

^  1.  Divide  the  matter  of  every  study  according  to  the 
standpoint  and  development  laws  of  the  pupil. 

^'      2,  Tarry  particularly  at  the  elements. 

^  3.  In  proving  deduced  statements  return  frequently 
to  the  first  elementary  foundation  ideas  and  deduce  the 
former  from  the  latter. 

4.  Divide  every  subject-matter  in  definite  stages  and 
small  wholes. 

5.  Indicate  upon  any  stage  several  parts  of  the  suc- 
ceeding one  and  without  allowing  a  noticeable  interrup- 
tion to  occur,  point  out  a  few  particulars  in  order  to 
stimulate  the  pupil's  desire  for  knowledge,  without, 
howevei',  gratifying  it. 

vj  6.  Divide  and  arrange  the  matter  in  such  a  way  that, 
wherever  possible,  in  the  new,  upon  the  succeeding  stage 
the  old  recurs  again  which  the  pupil  has  learned  up  to 
that  time.  [Provide  for  reviews  on  every  stage,  as  far  as 
possible.] 

^  7.  Connect  subjects  which  are  related  in  kind  with 
each  other.     [Correlate!] 

8.  From  the  thing  to  its  sign  [symbol],  not  vice  versa. 
[First  the  idea,  then  the  word  or  sign  representing  it.] 

9.  In  the  choice  of  the  form  of  teaching  be  guided  by 
the  nature  of  the  topic. 

III.    WITH    REFERENCE    TO    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS,    OF 
the   TIME,   PLACE,   ETC. 

J  1.  Treat  topics  more  one  after  another  than  one  beside 
the  other. 

2.  Consider  the  (probable)  future  calling  [state]  of  the 
pupil. 


146  Educational  Creeds. 

i     3.  Instruct  (educate)  in  conformity  to  the,  demands 
of  civilization. 


IV.  WITH  EEFEEENCE  TO  THE  TEACHER. 

vj     1.  Endeavor  to  make  instruction  attractive  (interest- 
ing). 

^    2.  Instruct  with  force.     [Leave  an  impression.] 

3.  Never  stand  still.     [Improve  constantly;  **keepa- 
moving;"  avoid  stagnation.] 

1.  The  problem  and  end  of  education  is  harmonious 
development  of  all  powers.     "As  physical  nature  un- 
folds its  powers  in  accordance  with  eternal, 

(te^iopment.  ^™"^^^^^^^^  laws,  SO  human  nature  is  sub- 
jected in  its  development  to  similar  laws. 
All  sound  pedagogy  must  be  founded  upon  these  laws. 
All  instruction  and  all  education  must  have  a  psyclio- 
logical  foundation ;  education  and  instruction  must 
proceed  in  accordance  with  the  same  laws  that  nature 
itself  follows.  The  method  looks  upon  the  soul  of  the 
child  not  as  a  tabula  rasa  that  must  first  be  written  upon 
from  without,  nor  as  an  empty,  hollow  vessel  that  is  to 
be  filled  with  foreign  matter  in  order  to  contain  some- 
thing, but  as  a  real,  living,  self-dependent  power  that 
unfolds  itself  from  the  first  moment  of  its  existence, 
after  its  own  laws." 

2.  (a)  "Moral  Culture  is  the  pure  unfolding  of 
human  willing  through  the  higher  feeling  of  love,  grati- 
tude, and  confidence  as  they  express  them- 

cidtore.     selves  as  germinating  in  the  pure  relation 

between  cliild  and  mother.     The  aim  of  tliis 

culture  is  the  moral  perfecting  of  our  nature;  its  means 

iire  exercises  in  the  desire  for  moral  feeling,  thinking, 

uud  doing." 


Diesterweg.  147 

(b)  "  Intellectual  Culture  is  the  pure  unfolding 
of  human  ability  or  our  power  of  reason  through  a  most 
simple  habituating  of  its  use.     The  aim  of 
intellectual   development  is  to  produce   in  ^"^cuime!*^ 
man  clear  concepts.     The  starting-point  of 
knowledge  is  sense  pei'ception,  the  end  the  raising  of  the 
sense-percept  to  the  concept." 

(c)  "  Physical  Culture  is  the  pure  development  of 
ability  or  the  many-sided  physical  powers  within  man 
through  the  simple  habituating  of  their  use. 

The  starting-point  of  this  unfolding  is  7nove-    cnUtur^ 
ment;  the  aim,  power,  graceful  carriage,  and 
skill  in  handicrafts  and  arts." 

3.  Spontaneity   and   self-activity    are    the   necessary 
conditions  under  which  the  mind  educates  itself,  and 
gains  power  and  independence.      "Nature 
develops  all  the  human  faculties  by  practice,  ^^Jtivityl'* 
and  their  growth  depends  on  their  exercise." 


HEEBART'S  PEDAGOGICAL  CREED. 

The  aim  of  education  is  the  formation  of  a  moral- 
religious  character. 

Method  :  Conform  as  educator  to  the  laws  governing 
human  development. 

The  aim  of  education  is  given  and  explained  in  the 
science  of  ethics :  the  ways  and  means  are  founded,  in 
general,  upon  ^jsychology ;  in  particular,  upon 
in^giit  and  the  laws  of  development  of  the  individuality. 
FormatioTi  of  character  is  essentially  loill- 
culture.     In  order  to  make  it  moral-religious  it  is  neces- 
sary to  develop  a  moral-religious   insight.     In  short, 
education  aiming  to  form  a  moral-religious  character 
consists  chiefly  in  will-culture  and  intelligence-culture. 
That  branch  of  education  which  aims  mainly  at  will- 
culture  is  called  guidance  and  includes  child-govern- 
ment and  training.     Intelligence-culture  is  essentially 
the  office  of  i7istruction.     Thus  we  speak  of  three  inter- 
related offices  of  education:  government,  training,  and 
instruction. 

How  does  the  educator  form  the  character  of  an  im- 
mature individual?  How  does  he  lead  him  to  perfec- 
tion-seeking intelligence  ? 

The  first  condition  is  a  knowledge  of  human  nature 
and  particularly  child-nature;  furthermore,  the  educa- 
tor should  be  familiar  with  the  laws  govern- 

andchiw    ing  the  mental  and  physical  development  of 
^'      his  pupil.     Tliis  is  learned  from  exact  psy- 
chology and  a  careful,  constant,  and  sympathetic  study 
of  children. 

148 


Herbarf. 


149 


The  special  aims  which  the  educator  must  bear  in 

mind  if  he  wants  to  develop  and  form  character   are: 

(1)  to  cultivate  will:  (2)  to  make  this  will 

Character 
powerful  and  firm ;  (3)  to  direct  the  will  to     deveiop- 

the  good.     The  completion  of  the  character 

proper  is  a  matter  that  lies  beyond  the  sphere  of  the 

educator;  it  is  for  the  pupil  to  realize  himself  in  a  ma- 


Herbart. 

turer  age  by  constantly  exercising  control  over  himself 
through  self-formed  resolutions. 

How  pedagogic  activity  is  to  be  organized  and  to 
proceed    may  be   learned    from  psychology. 
According  to  Herbart,  character  rests  upon        and 
resolution,  and  this  is  the  result  of  reflection. 
Resolving    contains    two    elements    or    two    different 


150  Educational  Creeds. 

wills,  as  it  were:  an  ohjeclive  will  growing  out  of  inter- 
ests and  a  subjective  will  whose  source  is  the  judgment. 
The  objective  will  may  be  likened  to  a  river  which 
flows  out  of  the  thought-circle.     If  its  direction  is  to  be 
changed  you  must  begin  at  the  source.     The 
imstnictijon.  n^e^i^s  to  this  end  is  given  in  educative  in- 
struction, the  most  faithful   ally  of  moral 
guidance. 

The  following  examples  may  suggest  thoughts  as  to 
how  to  counteract  the  incipient  growth  of  a  misdirected 
objective  will : 

A  boy  spends  his  play  hours  in  fishing,  catching  birds 

or  butterflies;  and  he  is  in  danger  that  his  fine  feeling, 

sympathetic  heart  will  harden.     Would  pun- 

iUustration.  ishment  direct  the  content  of   his    will   to 

nobler  pursuits  ?     Would  it  thoroughly  cure 

him  ?      Certainly  not.      It  would  sooner  increase  the 

danger.     The  thoughtful  educator  pursues  a  different 

course.     He  seeks  to  build  up  a  new  interest  in  the 

thought-circle  of  the  boy.     He  calls  his  attention  to  the 

beauty  of  flowers,  explains  to  him  their  nature   and 

various  kinds,  shows  him  how  to  raise  plants  and  how 

to  take  care  of  them,  how  to  press  and  dry  them.     The 

probabilities  are  that  he  will  spend  his  recreation  hours 

in  cultivating  plants,  in  botanizing,  and  in  making  a 

herbarium. 

Stimulate  and  develop  in  your  pupils  as  many-sided 
as  possible  an  interest  in  worthy  objects. 

lie,  however,  who  follows  only  his  interests  without 
regard  to  their  practical  value  or  moral  worth  is  a  weak 
character.     On  the  other  hand,  if  our  will  is 
Character,    constantly  brought  before  the  forum  of  judg- 
ment, if  our  conscience  is  judge  and  we  ac- 
cept and  follow  out  its  verdict,  on  matter  how  hard 
it  may  seem  to  be,  then  results,  as  a  product  of  two 


Herbart.  i^i 

factors  (objective  and  subjective  willing),  the  charac- 
ter. 

The  formation  of  the  subjective  willing  shows  differ- 
ent stages  of  development :  that  of  choice,  holding  fast 
to  the  willed  object,  resolution,  maxim  or 
rule  of  life,  and  principle.     In  this  forma-    sabjectiye 
tion  of  character  the  pupil  must  be  aided  in 
various  ways,  as  by  habituation,  good  example,  suitable 
occupation,  admonition,  explanation,  and  warning;  above 
all,  prayer  is  of  importance  here,  and  for  the  more  ma- 
ture pupils  the  Bible  and  divine  service. 

A  character  founds  itself  upon  the  foundation  of  inner 
self-dependence.     In  order  to  aid  the  maturing  of  this 
self-dependence  by  the  above-named  means 
(habituation,  good  example,  etc.)  there  is  but    actihJity. 
one  way,  that  of  the  self-activity  of  the  pupil. 
Only  by  his  own  activity  in  thinking  and  willing  does 
man  attain  to  self-dependence.     Only  self-activity  can 
produce   profound   knowledge  and  free  ability.      The 
pupil  loves  nothing  more  than  self-activity  because  it 
gives  him  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  human  power  and 
dignity. 

Accordingly,  it  is  a  natural  as  well  as  rational  princi- 
ple of  education  to  incite  pupils  to  self-activity.  Adolph 
Diesterweg,  for  this  reason,  rightly  declared  the  supreme 
principle  of  instruction  to  be: 

"  Lead  your  pupils  to  self-dependence  through  self- 
activity  in  the  service  of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the 
good." 

The  surest  means  for  early  character-formation  or 
the  laying  of  the  foundation  of  character  are  educative 
instruction  and  educative  guidance.  Educative  instruc- 
tion is  the  greater  of  the  two :  it  is  the  principal  means 
to  the  end  of  character-formation. 

(Adapted  from  an  article  b^  Q.  FroeLlicb.) 


TWO  ANALYSES   OF  HERBART'S  DIDACTICS. 


I. 


1.  Instruction  is  to  so  form  the  pupil's  circle  of 
tliouglit  that  right  iudgment  and  right  willing  may 
grow  out  of  it. 

2.  Its  specific  object  is  to  stimulate  and  develop  many- 
sided,  equilibrious  (harmonious),  direct  interest. 

The  following  interests  (sides  of  interest)  must  be 
considered: 

n.  emperical, 

I.  Interests  of  cognitions  (knowledge)  \  2.  speculative, 

(3.  aesthetic. 

II.  Interests  of  participation  (associa-    jg'  gQ^,!i^    ^ '^' 

tion  with  others),     -jg;  religious. 

3.  The  matter  of  instruction  is  contained  in  the  .sci- 
ences. 

The  sciences  are  divided  into  two  groups  :  historical  and  natu- 
ral sciences : 

{n)  The  matter  furnished  l)y  the  natural  sciences  serves  to  sup- 
plement, almost  exclusively,  the  experience  of  the  pupil;  and 
hence  supplies  the  sources  of  the  interests  of  knowledge. 

{h)  The  matter  furnished  by  the  historical  sciences  serves  to 
supplement  both  the  pupil's  experience  and  intercourse  with 
others,  particularly  the  latter;  and  hence,  supplies  the  sources  of 
the  interests  of  participation  or  association  with  others. 

152 


Her  barfs  Didactics.  153 

4.  Instruction  requires  of  the  pupil  attention,  absorp- 
tion, and  reflection,     {Method.) 


A..eo.loo  I  ^J-'^^S;     .primitive, 
J     '"'""'■•"  J  •  -J  apperceivi 


apperceiving. 
Ataorptio-  j«'-™Sn. 

««««=«-]  SS. 

55-^he  matter  of  instruction  is  brought  home  to  the 
child,  by  employing  either  the  things  themselves,  or 
surrogates  (models  and  pictures  of  the  things),  or  merely 
signs  or  symbols  (language,  etc. )  {Means  of  Method.) 

6.  To  bring  connection  and  unity  into  the  various 
groups  of  thought,  all  instruction  must  be  tending  to  a 
common  center.     {Concentric  Instruction.) 

'!.  The  procedu7'e  in  the  method  of  instruction  is  either 
analytic,  or  merely  exhibiting  (descriptive),  or  syn- 
thetic. 

II. 

0.  Willmann,  one  of  the  best  authorities  on  Herbart's 
pedagogic  ideas,  gives  the  following  analysis  of  the 
didactics: 

l7istruction. 

1.  Its  procedure  is  with  reference  to  the  circle  of 
thought  of  the  pupil  either 

analytic,  or 

synthetic. 

2.  It  gives  absorption,  as  a  first  stage  of  many-sided- 
ness  through 

shoioing  (presenting) 

and  connecting ; 
and  reflection,  as  a  second  stage,  through 
teaching  (causing  to  know) 

and  philosophizing  (causing  to  think  and  apply). 


154  Educational  Creeds. 

3,  It  is  according  to  the  stages  of  the  interest 

intuitive  (addressed  to  perception) 
and  continuous  (far-following); 
According  to  the  stages  of  desire 
elevating 

and  entering  into  recdity. 

4.  With  reference  to  the  cogiiitions  it  develops 

the  spirit  of  observation, 
speculation, 

and  taste  ; 
with  reference  to  participation  (love  of  and  feeling  of 
dependence  upon  others)  it  gives 

symjjatlielic  participation, 
public  spirit, 

religiotisness. 


BENEKE'S   PEDAGOGICAL  CEEED. 

Beneke  considers  pedagogy  to  be  applied  psychology 
and  seeks  to  make  psychology  serviceable  to  pedagogy. 
Education,  as  he  explains  it,  is  almighty. 

He  assumes  that  it  is  the  duty  of  developed  reason  to 
raise  undeveloped  reason  up  to  its  own  plane.  The  re- 
sultant definition  of  education  is  as  follows: 
"  Eduction  is  the  intentional  exerting  of  an  education! 
influence  on  the  2)art  of  adults  iqyon  youth  in 
order  to  elevate  it  to  the  higher  stage  of  culture  which 
those  occupy  and  survey  uho  exert  the  influence."  The 
importance  with  which  he  invests  education  is  shown  in 
his  belief  that  it  produces  all  good  and  all  evil  revealed 
in  man.  The  human  being,  according  to  him,  brings 
into  the  world  only  the  capability  to  receive  sense-im- 
pressions, to  retain  these,  to  connect,  separate  and  group 
them  according  to  their  similarities  and  differences,  and 
to  elaborate  them  to  higher  mental  forms,  etc.  The 
natural  gifts  are  neither  good  nor  evil;  the  educator 
must  develop  and  unfold  them  and  take  care  that  they 
do  not  degenerate. 

Success  of  education  depends  upon  clear  conscious- 
ness of  its  effects,  the  Science  of  Education  is  the  devel- 
opment of  this  consciousness  to  the  highest 

degree.     Knowledge  of  psychology  furnishes  and  auxiliary 

*  sciences 

explanations  as  to  how  an  influence  affects 

the  inner  development,  what  of  this  remains  as  an  inner 

talent  (power),  how  the  latter  expresses  itself  and  what 

155 


156  Educational  Creeds. 

may  be  built  upon  it.    But  pedagogy  must  look  also  to 
logic  for  support  in  order  to  determine  the  perfection  of 
thinking.    Further,  it  must  consult  (esthetics  for  the  de- 
velopment of  aesthetic  taste;  ethics,  for  the  establishment 
of  the  moral  development ;  the  philosophy  of  religion, 
for  the  theory  of  religious  culture.     It  must  also  borrow 
advice  from  anatomy,  physiology,  and  pathology. 
■    The  three  real  educators  of  man,  according  to  Beneke, 
are  (1)  the  natural  environment,  (2)  fate,  (3)  human 
beings.     Education  bj  man  is  the  only  one 
^of'maa"    directly  controllable  and  it  has  the   advan- 
tage that  it  can  press  the  other  two  "  educa- 
tors "  into  its  service,  and  this  it  must  do. 

The  three  main  questions  which   concern  pedagogy 
and  which  it  must  answer  are  these:  (1)  what  is  the  ob- 
ject and  aim  of  education?     (2)  What  does 
^edalogV.*  ^^^  educator  find  before  the  beginning  of  his 
work  ?     (3)  What  means  can  aid  the  educa- 
tor to  lead  that  which  he  finds  to  the  aim. 


HERBART  AND   BENEKE. 

A  Comparison  of  Their  Creeds  with  Reference 
TO  THE  Theory  of  Instruction. 

According  to  Beneke,  the  business  of  education  is 
the  perfection  of  the  whole  of  human  life,  both  phys- 
ically   and    mentally.      Its   main    problem,  Relation  of 
however,    is    the    formation    and    develop-    ^^^^^°^ 
ment  of  the  inner  faculties  or  powers  of  the  instmction. 
soul.     Under    education,    he    therefore    treats  of   the 
training  of  the  intellect,  the  emotions,  and  the  will.     The 
function  of  instruction,  on  the  other  hand,  is  to  impart  a 
definite  objective  content,  whereby  the  pupil's  knowl- 
edge may  be  enriched  and  his  skill  perfected. 

Education  and  instruction  are  closely  inter-related, 
and  must  be  mutually  helpful.     Education  prepares  the 
way  for  instruction  by  creating  in  the  child 
habits  of  attention.     Instruction,   in   turn,  hew^^sj. 
must  always  be  educative,  at  the  same  time. 
Through  the  imparting  of  ideas,  instruction  aids  the  es- 
tablishment of  feelings  and  desires,  hence,  one  of  its  es- 
sential purposes  is  the  training  of  the  emotions  and  the 
character.     The  matter  of  instruction  must  create  in  the 
pupil  a  "feeling  of  tension"  ("spannendes  Selbstge- 
fiihl,"  interest),  which  impels  him  to  self-activity.    In- 
struction should  furnish  model  combinations  (concepts, 
theorems,  ideals),  which  become  authoritative  standards, 
producing  new  groups  of  concepts  and  series  of  ideas,  in 

157 


158  Educational  Creeds. 

accordance  with  their  type.  Thus,  "if  a  pupil  has 
clearly  and  distinctly  grasped  certain  mathematical 
theorems,  he  may  apply  the  same  general  perception  of 
form,  the  same  idea  of  clearness,  not  only  to  other  mathe- 
matical problems,  but  to  problems  of  life  and  language 
as  well,  so  that  nothing  will  henceforth  satisfy  him  which 
falls  short  of  that  ideal,  and  he  will  strain  all  his  pow- 
ers in  striving  to  realize  it  even  in  these  other  fields." 

The  educative  influence  of  instruction  also  depends  on 
the  personality  of  the  teacher:  especially  the  tone  of  his 
teaching  (Lehrton),  as  well  as  on  the  whole  management 
of  the  school. 

Herbart  recognizes  three  educative  activities,  namely, 
government,  training,  and   instruction,  the  highest  of 
which  is  training.     The  aim  of  training  and 
^omcesT^    instruction   lies   in  the   future,    while  gov- 
ernment has  to   do   with   the   present.      It 
maintains  order,  by  removing  whatever  may  tend  to  dis- 
turb the  work  of  training  and  instruction.     It  comprises 
what  is  generally  known  as  school  discipline. 

Both  Beneke  and  Herbart  declare  the  formation  of 
character  to  be  the  supreme  aim  of  all  education.    Both 
are  convinced  that  training  and  instruction 
Mmpared.    ™ust  constantly  aid  each  other,  and  that  all 
instruction  must  be  of  an  educative  nature. 
Beneke  does  not  make  a  separate  sub-division  of  govern- 
ment, but  he  supplements  Herbart's  idea  of  the  relation 
of  training  and  instruction,  by  calling  attention  to  the 
importance  of  authoritative  standards  (of  thinking,  feel- 
ing, and   willing),  which   result  from  certain   models 
implanted  in  the  pupil's  mind. 

Beneke  demands  that  instruction  should  lead  the  pupil 
to  higher  ideals,  and  fills  him  with  a  desire  to  live  up  to 
them  more  and  more,  and  to  use  them,  according  to  his 
strength  and  opportunity,  in  working  for  the  progress 


Her  bar  t  and  Beneke.  159 

of  mankind.     In  connection  with  this  general  culture, 
or  education  for  ideal  manhood,  there  may  be  the  train- 
ing for  a  special  occupation  or  vocation  in 
life.  •      One    study    may  serve   both   ends,  la^^ction. 
The    acquirement    of  an   inner  perfection 
may  be  the  means  for  the  attainment  of  an  external  pur- 
pose, an  object  of  special  training,  likewise  certain  ac- 
complishments acquired  for  the  purpose  of  professional 
training  (a  musical  education,  for  instance)  may  be  of 
importance  to  a  general,  liberal  education. 

Herbart  finds  the  proximate  aim  of  instruction  in  the 
producing  of  a  many-sided,  well-balanced,  well-connect- 
ed, direct  interest.  He  means  by  interest  so  pleasurable 
a  feeling  attending  one^s  dealing  with  a  subject  that  it 
will  lead  to  continuous  working  at  it.  The  many-sided- 
ness of  interest  helps  to  form  the  moral  character,  which 
is  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  education.  The  special  train- 
ing of  the  pupil  for  the  mere  sake  of  profit  or  bread-win- 
ning is  not,  according  to  Herbart,  the  business  of  the 
educator. 

Both  Herbart  and  Beneke,  accordingly,  believe  the 
aim  of  instruction  to  consist  not  in  knowledge  or  skill, 
but  in  interest;   or,  as  Beneke  calls  it,  the  Branches  of 
"feeling  of  tension."    Both  put  general  cul-        and 
ture   before  special  training.     But  Herbart     values, 
stated  the  aim  of  instruction  and  its  relation  to  the  gene- 
ral aim  of  education  more  pointedly  and  distinctly  by 
giving  an  accurate  and  clear-cut  definition  of  the  many- 
sidedness  of  interest;  the  fundamental  idea  of  his  peda- 
gogics.    Beneke,  on  the  other  hand,  supplements  the 
theory  of  Herbart  by  investigating  more  thoroughly  the 
relation  between  special  training  as  a  preparation  for  a 
vocation  in  life,  and  as  a  general  humane  culture. 

Both  Herbart  and  Beneke  reject  the  old  doctrine  of 
formal  discipline,  which  meant  the  development  of  the 


i6o  Edticational  Creeds. 

so-called  "  faculties"  of  the  mind — imagination,  memory, 
reasoning,  etc., — independent  of  the  content  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  instruction.  "Memory,"  for  instance, 
says  Beneke,  "  does  not  exist  apart  from  ideas,  it  being 
merely  their  inner  power  of  persistence;  hence,  any 
amount  of  training  of  this  power  for  a  certain  circle  of 
ideas  will  not  increase,  in  the  least,  one's  retentiveness 
in  an  entirely  different  circle  of  ideas."  (This  agrees 
with  the  results  of  modern  psychology.  See,  e.  g., 
James'  Psychology,  I.  p.  664.)  In  like  manner,  Her- 
bart  says:  "Mathematical  reasoning  stays  in  mathe- 
matics, and  grammatical  reasoning  in  grammar;  but  the 
power  of  reasoning  in  any  other  subject  must  be  devel- 
oped in  its  own  way  for  that  particular  subject. 

Both,  however,  admit  that  intellectual  culture  ac- 
quired in  one  field  of  knowledge  may  be  of  use  in  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge  in  different  fields.  They  ar- 
rive at  this  conclusion  by  different  processes  of  reason- 
ing. Beneke,  as  was  stated  above,  assumes  that  ideal 
standards  attained  in  a  particular  study  will  lead  the 
mind  to  desire  the  same  perfection  in  other  subjects, 
while  Herbart  bases  it  on  the  laws  of  reproduction,  ac- 
cording to  which  ideas  enter  into  association  and  help 
oach  other.  Thus,  if  we  have  thoroughly  studied  some 
particular  science,  and  then  turn  to  another  which  con- 
tains matter  of  a  somewhat  similar  and  related  nature, 
the  ideas  of  the  old  subject  will  be  reproduced  in  us,  and 
help  in  the  acquisition  of  the  new  material. 

With  regard  to  educational   values,  Beneke  is  more 

explicit  than   Herbart.     Like    Dr.   W.   T.    Harris,   he 

divides  the  subjects  of  the  curriculum  into 

vaineaof    five  groups,  although  his  division  differs  in 

some  essential  points.     Beneke's  gronjis  are 

(1)  languages,   (2)    history,   together  with   morals  and 

religion,  (3)  mathematics,  (4)  natural  sciences,  and  (5) 


Her  bar  t  and  Beneke.  i6i 

technical  arts.  "  Every  one  of  these  groups,"  says  Ben- 
eke, "has  so  peculiar  and  well-defined  a  didactic  char- 
acter, that  none  of  them  can  be  used,  not  even  as  a 
passable  substitute  for  any  other."  Therefore,  these 
five  groups  must  be  represented  in  the  courses  of  study 
of  the  lowest  as  well  as  of  the  highest  classes  of  the 
school.  Beneke  values  the  study  of  languages  higher 
than  does  Herbart,  while  he  reduces  the  somewhat 
exaggerated  estimate  which  the  latter  seems  to  put  on 
mathematics.  With  regard  to  history,  he  differs  essen- 
tially from  Herbart,  and  his  opinions  on  this  study  form, 
perhaps,  the  weakest  part  of  his  system.  He  divides 
history  into  "external"  and  "internal."  The  latter, 
which  includes  a  philosophic  view  of  the  inner  connec- 
tion of  historic  events,  he  regards  as  too  difficult  for  a 
school  study,  as  the  pupil  lacks  the  proper  amount  of 
introspection  and  experience  to  understand  the  process 
of  human  development.  The  only  history  left  for  the 
schools  is,  then,  the  "  external ;"  in  other  words,  a  dry 
conglomeration  of  facts,  names,  and  dates,  which  is 
hardly  of  any  pedagogic  value.  This  separation  is 
utterly  artificial,  and  quite  foreign  to  Herbartian  ideas. 
Beneke's  remarks,  on  the  educational  value  of  the  natu- 
ral sciences,  including  geography,  as  well  as  on  the 
manual  arts,  are  equally  disappointing,  and  cannot  be 
compared  as  to  depth  and  thoroughness  with  the  views 
of  Herbart  on  the  same  subjects. 

With  regard  to  this  question,  Beneke  and  Herbart 
differ  materially  from  each  other.     Beneke  admits  that 
there  are  certain  advantages  in  private  in- 
struction, in  so  far  as  it  can  do  greater  jus-      pubUc 
tice  to  the  individuality  of  the  pupil,  and 
has  greater  freedom  in  the  selection  of  the  subjects  of 
study.     But,  on  the  other  liand,  class  instruction  gains 
much  through  the  force  of  example,  habit,  and  social 


i62  Educational  Creeds. 

interest.  The  intercourse  of  pupils  in  the  school  is  the 
very  best  preparation  for  life  in  organized  society.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  he  qualifies  his  remarks  by  re- 
stricting them  largely  to  the  male  sex.  Boys,  he  thinks, 
need  the  education  of  the  family  and  the  public  school; 
for  girls,  education  in  the  family  might  be  suflBcient. 

Herbart,  on  the  contrary,  regards  education  essen- 
tially as  the  function  of  the  family.  The  class  teacher 
is  too  much  inclined  to  look  upon  the  class  as  a  whole, 
and  to  neglect  the  individual  pupil.  Truly  educative  in- 
struction, in  its  full  perfection,  can  be  given  only  by  a 
tutor  in  the  home,  he  believes,  and  well-conducted  pri- 
vate schools  are  to  be  preferred  to  public  institutions. 
From  a  practical  point  of  view,  as  well  as  for  other 
considerations,  the  position  of  Beneke  would  seem  to  be 
more  sound  than  that  of  Herbart,  who  may  have  been 
largely  influenced  by  his  own  experience  as  a  tutor. 

From  this  brief  comparison  of  the  pedagogic  theeries 
of  Beneke  and  Herbart,  it  appears  that  these  two  philo- 
sophical educationists  are  by  no  means  op- 
*  posed  to  each  other,  nor  do  they  show  only  a 
few  points  of  contact.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  found 
that,  while  they  materially  differ  on  certain  minor  ques- 
tions, there  is  a  substantial  agreement  concerning  those 
matters  wliich  are  fundamental.  In  some  ways  Beneke 
supplements  and  corrects  Ilerbart's  views,  and  from 
this  point  of  view  his  system  may  be  regarded  as  a  de- 
velopment of  Herbart's  didactics.  This  is  all  the  more 
remarkable,  as  the  two  systems  are  built  «p  on  entirely 
different  psychological  foundations,  and  it  proves  that 
Herbart's  psychology  is  by  no  means  the  only  one  which 
can  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  thoroughly  sound  and  consist- 
ent system  of  education. 

(Adapted  from  O.  E.  Hmniners  "  Die  Unterrichtslebre  Benekes 
ijn  Vergleicb  zur  pUdagogischen  Didaktik  Herbarts. ") 


Keflogg^s  Teachers'  Library 


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10.  Tate's  Philosophy  of  Education       ...  -  1.50 

11.  Quick's  Educational  Reformers i.oo 

12.  Noetling's  Notes  on  the  Science  and  Art  of  Education    -  i.oo 

13.  Love's  Industrial  Education i.oo 

14.  Payne's  Nature  Study i.oo 

15.  Shaw's  National  Question  Book 1,00 

16.  Payne's  Lectures  on  Education         -        -        -        -        -  i  .00 

17.  Welch's  Teachers'  Psychology 1.25 


TWO  DOLLARS  CASH, 

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How  to  Celebrate  Arbor  Day  in  the 
ScboolrooE 

For  the  Primary,  Grammar,  and  High  School 

This  book  contains  96  solid  pages.  All  the  selections  are  fresh  and  new,  and  ar« 
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I.  THE  ORIGIN  OP  ARBOR  DAY. 

II.  HINTS  ON  PliANTING  THE  TREES. 

III.  ARBOR  DAY  IN  THE  U.  8. 
IT.    8PECIAIi  EXERCISES. 

1.  The  Arbor  Day  Queen  ;  2.  Thoughts  About  Trees  t  3.  lilttic 
Rnnawayn  t  4.  November's  Party  i  5.  The  Coming  of  Spring  i 
6.  Through  the  Year  with  the  Trees  ;  7.  May  ;  8.  The  Poetry  oj 
Spring  i  9.  The  Plea  of  the  Trees  ;  lO.  Tree  Planting  Exercise. 

V.  RECITATIONS  AND  SONGS. 

VI.  FIFTY  QUOTATIONS. 

VII.  THE  PINK  ROSE  DRILL. 

VIII.  ARBOR  DAY  PROGRAMS 

For  Primary,  Grammar,  and  High  Schools. 
Soggestlons  as  to  the  most  effective  use  of  each  exercise  and  recitation  and  th.*: 
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teacher. 

Price,  25  Cents  Postpaid. 

How  to  Celebrate  Washington's 
Birthday  in  the  Schoolroom. 

Containing  Patriotic  Exercises,  Declamations,  Recitations, 
Drills,  Quotations,  &c.,  for  the 

PRIHARY,  GRAMMAR,  AND  HIGH  SCHOOL. 


06  Pages.    Price,  25  Cents  Postpaid 

This  book  has  been  received  with  great  eagerness  by  teachers,  and  a  large  num 
ber  sold.  There  are  at  least  100,000  teachers,  who  will  hold  some  exercises  on  thif 
great  day.  The  observance  of  Washington's  Birthday  is  IncreasiDK.  It  hat>  re- 
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merit.    Here  Is  a  part  of  the 

CONTENTS : 

I  Would  Tell. 


gBeclal  Kxerclses 

His  Birthday, 

TaViieaux  and  Recitations, 

Our  National  Songs, 

Historic  Kxercise, 

HonorlDK  the  Flag, 

waslilngton  Is  Our  ModeL 

Pirtures  from  the  Life  of  WMhlnffton, 


Flag  of  the  Rainbow, 

The  Good  Old  Days. 

The  S.hool  House  Stands  by  thcr  FIba 

A  Hoy  8  Protest. 

Tr'biite  to  Washington, 

Our  Presidents, 

Flagcf  r,MH*rp» 


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